ISBN online: 978-80-7509-986-0 | DOI: 10.11118/978-80-7509-986-0

Basics of Forest Ecology and Management

To Sustainable Forest Management in Mongolia

Antonín Kusbach (ed.), Václav Pecina (ed.)

Mongolian forests experience a unique transition between two biome extremes, the Gobi Desert and Siberian taiga. Moving from the south to the north, the journey is a spectacular mosaic of desert, semidesert, steppe landscapes and hemi-boreal forests. These slow growing forests are subject to harsh temperatures and some of the most rapidly warming climates on the planet. Compounding these natural factors, human-induced impacts are multiplying forest vulnerabilities. Climate change-accelerated disturbances, such as drought, wildfires, harmful insects, and tree diseases as well as logging, animal grazing, and mining activities are accelerating deforestation and land degradation. The extractive resource approaches of the past, in many cases recently increasing dramatically, are leading to additional problems. Relying on old practices with newer, higher rates of utilization is having tremendous negative socio-environmental impacts: desertification, permafrost melting, lack of water resources and pastures, nomadic migration, intensification of air pollution. Traditional Mongolian cultural practices rely on domestic animal grazing without responsibility and with little attention to forest stewardship. There is a need to build professional capacity with a credible forestry education program so that Mongolians can effectively manage the critical forest resource sustainably. Mongolian forest practices lack efficient tools and funding to shift towards sustainable forest protection, rehabilitation, regeneration, and a renewable forest value chain. Our intent was to fill a gap in the Mongolian forest ecology and sustainable forest management literature for today’s practitioners as well as provide solid educational tools based on modern forestry practices for training tomorrow’s forestry students and professionals.

Klíčová slova: climate change; ecosystem; environment; forestry; permafrost; sustainability;taiga

1. vydání, online: 2024, vydavatel: Mendel University in Brno