The Reform Government is committed to following a policy of “green development”. Both the civil society and mining professionals are relying on S.Oyun, head of Civil Will Green Party and Minister of Environment and Green Development, to do a lot in this regard. On the other hand, mine owners expect her, as a former geologist who worked in the field, to know the ground realities and to be supportive to them. O.Khostsetseg talks to her to find out how the Ministry will balance contrary expectations and encourage development of mining, with assurance of environmental protection.
Your Ministry will define and implement the policy for sustainable development. What is your concept of a green economy and green development?
People today are much more aware of how their children and the generations to follow will bear the consequences of how we treat the environment. The whole world is trying to find the best ways of ensuring long-term protection for the environment. As for Mongolians, in ancient times our whole life revolved around nature,and we had deeper connection with Mother Earth than many other countries. This enables us to show the way with our environmental policy. The Reform Government has correctly identified green development as the key to sustainable development. This places a huge responsibility on our Ministry. We have to formulate our State’s policy, keeping the global perspective in mind.
To answer your question, I see green development as meaning improving the economy and people’s life by using technology that harms the environment the least and halts ecological deterioration. This has to be our watchword even though the concept is new.
What is the direction the Ministry will follow in the coming years?
First of all, we have to identify the general strategy and goals of green development and correlate them with the policies in other sectors. The whole work will come in three stages. In the first, we have to decide on the immediate areas where the green development policy can be implemented. It will take time, maybe years, for some sectors to reorder their priorities and for the general people to change their mindset. But we have to make a beginning and try our best to accomplish as much as possible in the next four years. The following steps will emerge as we start implementing the new policy. Of course, we shall enforce implementation of the environmental protection policy in keeping with the amendments to laws and regulations as approved by the last Parliament. I believe the new law is a good one.
Most will agree with you on this. However, your Ministry doesn’t have the authority to oversee implementation of the law.
Yes, the Ministry needs to have that authority. Without proper oversight, protection could become just eyewash, with no genuine intent behind it. This is what happens now. When we feel some mineral-related work somewhere is violating the law, all we can do is to send a request to the Inspection Agency, the police and the local authority to investigate the matter in their own way. We need to make drastic changes in the way the Inspection Agency works. It’s not important who has the authority to oversee. More to the point is to make the surveillance process effective and for different departments to work in cooperation with oneanother. The Government will discuss the whole issue thoroughly before making overall changes.
What will be the general policy to develop mining with minimum harm to the environment?
It is imperative that our exploration and mining standards are brought closer to world standards and this includes the use of proper technology. We have used outdated techniques and technology from the very beginning and this has already caused great harm to the environment. The very high costs of rehabilitation lead mining companies to either just abandoning the land or covering it with some dirt to show they have followed the law. All this has been known and talked about for many years, and it is time we took some stern decisions.
Another important issue is improving the general plans and policy related to the development of the mineral sector. We need to change the system that urges us to start extracting as soon as we find something. We need to decide on what minerals we need to extract and what to do with them. Digging up every deposit we find is not environment friendly mining.
We will bring destruction on ourselves if we dig every deposit at the same time on the plea of aiding economic growth. Sustainable development is a holistic approach, where the economy, society and the environment are parts of one ger whole. We have so far believed that the most important thing is to produce more and to create jobs so that people have more income and the environment can wait. This must change now. We must first make sure that society has the capacity to handle an ever increasing number of jobs and industries. Only then shall we be on the path to sustainable development.
What are your plans for areas that have not been rehabilitated? Will the State spend money on this?
The new law gives no preference and makes no exception in issues regarding the environment. Anybody running an industry must do proper rehabilitation. Anybody polluting the water in any way has to purify it. Everyone will have to pay fees at the same rate if they pollute the air. This means every mining company today must do rehabilitation work even as they operate. If they don’t, their operation will be suspended according to the law. In the last 2-3 years, a thorough study was made of cases where responsibility cannot be apportioned or the concerned companies have gone bankrupt or land has not been rehabilitated because it belonged to the State during the socialist regime. The final report says that nearly 500 areas in 16 aimags that suffered from mining activity were abandoned without any rehabilitation. We shall now demand that the responsible companies and individuals do rehabilitation. As for lands that belonged to the Defence sector and were damaged by mining and then abandoned during the Soviet regime, the Government has an action plan to implement rehabilitation programmes. In sum, every entity that damaged the environment must do rehabilitation, and if the responsible companies are not found, the State will have to do it.
Another issue is mine closure. Is it true that new regulations on this are waiting to be passed?
Mine closure is indeed an important issue. Some people talk as if mining is just beginning in our country, but actually there are small mines that are due for closure. Our thinking is that closure is not something that can be left to be discussed 10-20 years after a mine starts work, but should be planned as soon as the deposit is opened. The law makes it clear that funds for rehabilitation and closure have to be demonstrably allotted right at the beginning. The Ministry intends to strictly enforce this right from the stage of a company preparing the environmental assessment report.
The action plan of the Government introduces a new concept called “rehabilitation of alternative land”. This allows rehabilitation of land other than the one originally affected. Afforestation, reducing desertification, recreating pasture land in any equivalent area will qualify as rehabilitation. The goal is to make sure a company adequately contributes to the health of the environment, even if it is on alternative land. The Ministry will promote this practice and I hope it becomes popular with mining companies.
The Southern Gobi region is rich with minerals but has poor water resources. How do we improve water usage? Is increasing the water price a solution?
The Gobi has a very vulnerable ecologic structure indeed. There should be a special water usage policy in this area. The National Water Programme adopted in 2010 contains suggestions on use of water in the Gobi. The law on natural resources usage fee enacted this year allows charging different prices for water based on the characteristics of a region and different patterns of water usage. Soon we shall have a system where water used in mining and exploration activities in the Gobi region will cost more, and the income will be used to improve water supply in the region. Water users will also have stricter responsibilities. We also plan to encourage use of technology seeking to recycle or save water through bank loans and tax incentives.
The common perception is that the Ministry of Environment does nothing but giving a hard time to entrepreneurs. What plans do you have to encourage them to use advanced technology and cause less harm to the environment?
Every business must accept its social responsibilities. On the other hand, the State must regard the private sector as its partner and cooperate with it. Such cooperation will have positive results for society. This has been seen in other countries. Incentives are necessary for businesses to go for expensive environment friendly technology. The important thing is that the incentive must take the form of an effective means of encouragement.
For this, there must be coordination between the State and the private sector. A regulation was passed in 2011 about giving incentives to individuals, entities and organisations seeking to reduce air pollution or heat loss and to save energy. However, it was not well publicised among the people and officials also were not well prepared. Thus it has not caught on. Our Ministry is taking initiatives to successfully implement the programme.
What is your position on the numerous pleas for allowing mining work to continue in specially protected areas?
Some areas that had legitimate grounds to be exempted were given the benefit during the last Parliament. Our Ministry’s policy as well as the Millennium Challenge policy is to raise specially protected areas to cover up to 30 per cent of the total territory of the country.
We hear of so many projects, initiated by foreigners and Mongolians alike, to fight desertification, protecting rare species of animals, increasing water resources etc. The results are not readily apparent. Many feel we should be more discerning in accepting projects suggested by foreigners. How do you hope to ensure better results from these projects?
The environment sector cannot be run on a commercial basis. I need to emphasise here that most projects and programmes come in the form of grants and donations to our Ministry, and are not funded by loans which have to be paid back. The principle we follow regarding foreign funded projects is that it is better to teach people how to catch a fish than to give fish to them, and this means we cannot expect quick results.
Foreign funded project proposals are evaluated by our experts in line with Government policies and priorities and there have been several instances when they were rejected because they did not fulfil our criteria. It would be a misrepresentation to say that we accept every project suggested. Better results can be obtained if there is more transparency and the right projects are taken up. There is no point in accepting a project if something similar is being funded by the State.