Nearly 80% of Numrog Strictly Protected Area affected by wildfire

ULAANBAATAR — A forest and steppe fire that broke out on October 8 in Numrog Strictly Protected Area, located in Khalkhgol soum, Dornod Province, burned a total of 528,765.5 hectares. Of that area, 468,965.7 hectares were within specially protected land. The fire was fully extinguished on October 16, while work continues to assess the environmental damage in detail and prepare a restoration plan.

Most of the protected area was affected

Preliminary information indicates that 79.8 percent of Numrog Strictly Protected Area was affected by the fire, representing serious environmental damage to a specially protected area. However, the scale of the burned area alone cannot fully capture the ecological impact. Separate studies are needed to assess the effects on soil, water, vegetation, wildlife and their habitats.

According to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the damage assessment will consider not only the burned area but also the functioning of the ecosystem and the long-term ecological consequences. The findings will provide a basis for determining the area’s capacity for natural recovery, planning any necessary restoration and selecting future protection measures.

Damage assessment and compensation measures to be determined

At its October 21 meeting, the Government instructed relevant authorities to determine the cause and circumstances of the fire, identify its point of origin and spread, and take measures to prevent further fires. It also decided that the environmental damage should be assessed, a restoration plan prepared, and the issues of holding any party found to have violated the law accountable and recovering compensation for the damage resolved under the relevant legislation.

The final monetary value of the damage and detailed results of the ecological assessment have not yet been made public. It would therefore be unfounded to convert the preliminary burned-area figure directly into a monetary estimate of environmental damage.

A long-term challenge for conservation

The consequences of the Numrog fire cannot be measured solely by whether the flames have been extinguished. The time required for vegetation to recover, the availability of food and habitat for wildlife, soil quality and changes in water regimes will all be important indicators for future conservation efforts.

The ecological assessment should distinguish between areas capable of recovering naturally and those requiring human-led restoration. At the same time, establishing the final cause of the fire and resolving accountability in accordance with the law will be essential to reducing future risks.