Mongolia

Mongolia is a large land-locked country of 157 million hectares, bordering Russia to the north and China on all other sides. It is situated on high plateaus with an average altitude of 1,580m above sea level, and over 80% of the country above 1,000m. While much of the landscape in the Southern part of the country is characterised by rocky deserts, notably the Gobi Desert, and grassy semi-arid steppes, with little forest, there are also significant mountain ranges in the West, Central and Northern parts of the country. Ecological zones include alpine mountain zones, taiga, forest steppe, steppe, desert steppe and desert. With just over 3.2 million people in 2019, Mongolia is the least densely populated country in the world. Yet there are many environmental challenges relating to desertification, overgrazing of grasslands, and impacts from climate change.