From September 22-23, in Ulaan-Baatar in Mongolia, the Senior Officials Meeting of the Northeast Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC) of the UN-ESCAP took place. For two days, the states of Northeast Asia (Mongolia, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and North Korea) discussed joint actions regarding air pollution, biodiversity, marine ecology, land degradation and desertification, and low-carbon cities. Good to see that all states, including North Korea, were part of these deliberations, despite serious political controversies. I had the chance to participate for the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation, since we work with NEASPEC since 2014, when we first organized jointly a short bird survey in Rason, North Korea, together also with Birds Korea. For those interested in birds, in particular migratory birds, the NEASPEC program is very important, since as part of its bio-diversity program NEASPEC designated three “flagship birds”, namely the Blackfaced Spoonbill, the White-Naped Crane, and the Hooded Crane, as well as three “flagship mammals”, the Amur tiger, Amur Leopard, and Snow Leopard.
In his opening speech, State Secretary Zolbayar Togtokhjargal of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of Mongolia stressed the commitment of Mongolia to protecting the environment and stressed the importance of hosting next year the COP 17 of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Ambassador Ganbold Baasanjav, head of the ESCAP East and North-East Asia Office in Songdo, Incheon, called on all states of the region to work together to address environmental issues. All national delegations gave a summary of their achievements and concerns regarding environmental issues in Northeast Asia. They reviewed air pollution, biodiversity and nature conservation, marine protected areas, low carbon cities, and desertification and land degradation. The Chinese delegation in a detailed manner highlighted success in all areas, like less air pollution, new protected areas (including one for the Great Panda), but also the other areas like low carbon cities.
The North Korean delegate started with general observations on the importance of environmental protection. He in particular stressed that over the last decade, North Korea reforested 1.45 million hectares of forest (last year over 2 bn. “high quality” saplings of trees were raised), as a “patriotic deed” by all citizens. Mr. Jo compared it to the Mongolian “billion trees” – campaign. Lastly (in his short contribution), he confirmed that North Korea was interested in regional cooperation on the issue – an encouraging sign, when in so many areas North Korea refuses to cooperate. The Japan delegation mentioned that it hoped to create synergies in the Asia-Pacific from cooperation between UN-ESCAP, ADB, and other agencies to promote SDG in the region, including the circular economy, biodiversity, and climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as disaster management. They also highlighted that they supported more than 230 projects in 31 partner countries, including Mongoli,a regarding climate change, plastic pollution (addressed in the Osaka Ocean Vision, a program to reduce ocean pollution to zero by 2050) etc. Mongolia reported on its updated commitments regarding climate change and the implementation of nature-based solutions. They admitted that air pollution is still an important problem that needs international cooperation. The South Korean delegation confirmed that the new government made the preservation of biodiversity and large ecosystems a national priority. They referred to the Our Oceans conference (where HSF participated with UN-ESCAP in a special session on the Yellow Sea ecosystem). Korea engages in the Korea-Mongolia Green Belt project, which is ongoing, including the training of Mongolian foresters. Finally, the Russian delegation reported on national projects on clean air (affecting industries and public transport), and expressed its hope to host the next low-carbon cities forum in Russia. They also highlighted afforestation projects, including a new mechanism called compensatory afforestation. They confirmed their interest in biodiversity protection through international cooperation (like CBD or CITES), and also the development of eco-tourism and ecological agriculture.
Hanns-Seidel-Foundation, in its contribution, highlighted the importance of ongoing protection of habitats in Northeast Asia; while some success has been achieved with regard to flagship species (like the Blackfaced Spoonbill (BFS) or the White-Naped and Hooded Crane), habitat degradation is still going on (in the Republic of Korea alone, 7-8 new airports are planned). All member states of UN-ESCAP are also members of EAAFP (the East Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership) and are encouraged to participate in the upcoming EAAFP MOP. Also, three states of the region (China, Russia, Mongolia) are part of the Central Asian Flyway, where an institutionalization process began (in the CMS COP in Uzbekistan last year). Finally, there is alsoan important overlap of biodiversity protection and marine protected areas, since these are very important for pelagic birds.
After the contributions of national delegations and civil society, and international organization representatives, a deliberation of documents in the aforementioned areas, air pollution, biodiversity and nature conservation, marine protected areas, low carbon cities, and desertification and land degradation began. In the field of air pollution, the Northeast Asia Clean Air Programme has enhanced knowledge cooperation. After the SOM, there will be two days of a national workshop on air pollution in Mongolia, a country where air pollution is very severe and causes many deaths.
The biodiversity and nature conservation project focuses on six flagship species, 3 large cats (Amur tiger, Amur leopard, Snow leopard), and three migratory birds (BFS, White-naped, and Hooded crane). One of the works of the future is (finally, after a long time) the opening of a database on these species, making research more available regionwide. Also, for some species like the BFS, the conservation success is visible, and a new updated species survival plan has been prepared, which will be submitted to the CMS COP next year in Brazil. The big cat project is sponsored by Russia. For the birds, a new project of connectivity of habitats is planned (with a budget of almost 300.000 USD). Member states are requested to update NEASPEC on ongoing activities on the flagship birds and their habitats, as well as big cats. Mongolia offered to use its Mongolian Pavillion for side events in the Abu Dhabi 2026 Water conference.
Regarding Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), two studies on MPAs in China and South Korea have already been done. Another study on either Japan or Russia will be done in 2026. Hanns-Seidel-Foundation, which started to work with North Korea on an MPA study for the country, remains committed to finishing it soon. The action plan for MPA in 2026 was approved, including the call for DPRK (North Korea) to join NEAMPAN and designate MPA for participation in NEAMPAM.
In terms of low-carbon cities, the NEASPEC fostered an LCCN (low-carbon city network) and published a handbook on low-carbon cities. In the next year, they want to open a digital platform for networking about LCC in Northeast Asia. Land Degradation is maybe the most important topic of this year´s NEASPEC SOM. This is related to the hosting of the UNCCD COP in Ulaan-Baatar in August 2026. The UNCCD COP 17 expects to attract more than 10.000 people, and so is one of the largest COPS (besides UNFCCC). Mongolia appealed to all NEASPEC members to help make the UNCCD COP a success. In a special presentation, Ms. Ariuntuya Dorjsuren, Director General of the Policy, Planning and Resource Mobilisation Division, Office of the COP-17 National Committee, explained more about COP 17. (Ms. Ariuntuya Dorjsuren is alone responsible for several dozen environmental treaties and conventions at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of Mongolia, permanently traveling and an important partner for HSF in Mongolia and regionally). COP 17 will be divided into thematic days on water, land, resilience, people, and food and agriculture. HSF has to think about how they can contribute, most likely in the “people” area (with UN association, etc.), and also on nature-based solutions and rangelands (with the CAF/ EAAFP biodiversity component). The rangeland flagship initiative, a 10-year initiative for grassland rehabilitation, could be an important point of cooperation, if as part of the CAF initiative, a large project is emerging.
All three flagship species of migratory birds are also in Korea, the Blackfaced Spoonbill mainly as a breeding bird, and in small numbers wintering on Jeju island, the two crane species, White-Naped Crane and Hooded Crane, as wintering birds. And all three bird species in the last two decades had a generally positive development, for the Blackfaced Spoonbill to such an extent, that its global conservation status has recently been upgraded from “Endangered” to “Vulnerable”. Certainly, the species benefitted enormously from the focus on their conservation – from bird festivals to better counts, from feeding opportunities to the creation of protected areas, the survival of these species seems to be developing well. Nevertheless, it does neither mean that work on the flagship species can end nor that the intended effect, to protect all biodiversity better through the flagship species, has been achieved. The bag is at best very mixed, with some real improved understanding and to some extent better protection for migratory birds, and also a lot of setbacks, like new infrastructure development and declines, and many species less in the spotlight. This is not a negative assessment of the work of NEASPEC – on the contrary, it is very good and helpful that the countries of Northeast Asia work together to protect the beautiful fauna and flora of Northeast Asia. In this respect, it is very good that the work on flagship species will go on in the coming years.
Senior Officials Meeting of NEASPEC in Ulaan-Baatar, Mongolia, September 22, 2025 (© Bernhard Seliger)
Blackfaced Spoonbill Platalea Minor 저어새 Gimpo, 2025 (© Bernhard Seliger)
Blackfaced Spoonbill Platalea Minor 저어새 Gimpo, 2025 (© Bernhard Seliger)
Hooded Cranes Grus monachal 흑두루미 in Suncheon 2018 (© Bernhard Seliger)