Grasslands of the World.pdf - Disasters and Conflicts - UNEP

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TABLE 7.1
Land resources of Mongolia .
Grasslands of the world
Land use Proportion (%) Area (km 2 )
Grasslands and arid grazing 80.7 1 210 000
Forest 6.9 104 000
Saxaul forest in Gobi 3.1 46 000
Arable (1) 0.5 7 000
National parks 3.5 52 000
Hay land (1) 1.3 20 000
Roads, buildings and miscellaneous 4.0 61 000
Total land area
NOTES: (1) Figures from the early 1990s. Much of that is now fallow .
SOURCE: Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
100 1 500 000
Plate 7.2
Mountain pastures above larch forest with yak – Zaghvan.
• mountain taiga (60 000 km 2 );
• forest -mountain and steppe – mixed forest and grazing (370 000 km 2 );
• dry steppe grassland (410 000 km 2 ); and
• Gobi – desert steppe and desert (580 000 km 2 ).
Extensive livestock production is, by far, the country’s major land use and
industry, as can be seen from Table 7.1.
The level-to-undulating topography of the Mongolian plateau is frequently
interrupted by low mountain ranges and is surrounded by rough topography.
Luvic xerosols associated with Orthic Solonchaks occupy the greatest part of
the land: the steppes and the Gobi desert . Associations of Haplic Yermosols
and Orthic Solonchaks also occur. Luvic Kastanozems associated with Orthic
Solonchaks occupy a large area in the north and east, the best of Mongolia ’s
J.M. SUTTIE