ABSTRACT
Although Mongolia is endowed with bountiful natural resources, several factors have combined to put the nation s environment under stress. First, the human population more than tripled during the 20th century (see Appendix 1, Table 1). Second, over the past four decades the country underwent a period of economic development and industrialization that led to dramatic increases in per capita natural resource consumption (Batjargal, 1992a b). Third, urbanization, which was particularly rapid from the mid-1950s to 1980 (Table 1), created burgeoning cities with attendant problems of crowding, pollution, and inadequate waste disposal.
