A Study on Policy and Institutional Arrangements for Urban Green Space Development in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Abstract

Globally, authorities in rapidly growing cities have struggled to find sufficient green space for residents. Ulaanbaatar city of Mongolia has faced a similar situation due largely to drastically shrinking open land, especially after adopting a market-oriented economy in 1990. Amid the escalating urban congestion and growing concerns over pollution that ensued, the concept of urban green spaces began to gain more attention among Ulaanbaatar city officials. In 2014, the national government introduced the Green Development Policy to set aside 30% of the city’s residential area as green space by 2030. The Ulaanbaatar 2020 Master Plan and Development Approach for 2030 similarly set goals to increase green space per capita to 30 m². However, the current share of green space in the city is only 1.8% and 0.12–5 m²/person. Most case studies on urban green space policies and institutional arrangements focus on large cities in European countries with a relatively low population growth rate compared to those in developing countries. Therefore, this paper attempts to understand why Ulaanbaatar has not been able to increase green space despite its ambitious policy goals for many years. To do so, we examined the policy documents and institutional arrangements. We also conducted personal interviews with government specialists. As a result, we found four main challenges: (1) actions to increase green space were weak; (2) action plans were not clearly laid out for government officials to follow; (3) where stakeholder coordination was needed, administrators did not have sufficient resources and frameworks to do so, and (4) promised plans were not financially feasible. Overall, these findings indicate a necessity to strengthen urban green space monitoring and sufficient budget mobilization.

1. Introduction

Several case studies showed that many countries faced challenges in implementing urban green space policies for several reasons [1,2,3,4,5]. Developing countries could not expand urban green spaces due to rapid population growth, limited skilled professionals, weak policy implementation, lack of financial and technical resources, and low government administrative capacity [6,7,8,9,10]. Consequently, densely populated residential areas are left without green space [11,12]. However, most case studies focused on large cities in developed countries with relatively low population growth rates. We still do not know how rapidly growing cities in developing countries have dealt with urban green space needs while responding to disappearing greenery and increasing informal settlements with chronic poverty and pollution issues [13].

Amid escalating urban congestion and growing concerns over pollution, the concept of urban green space began to gain more attention in Mongolia. In 2014, the national government introduced the Sustainable Development Concept for 2030 to set aside 30% of the city’s residential area as green space. Additionally, the Ulaanbaatar 2020 Master Plan and Development Approaches for 2030 set a goal to increase green space per capita to 30 m². However, meeting these goals faced many challenges. The current share of green space is 1.8%, and the green space per capita is 0.12–5 m² [14]. This per-capita size is much smaller than the level that the WHO recommended, which is at least more than 9 m² per person for a city with more than one million residents. An ideal green space value should be 50 m² per capita [15]. In Ulaanbaatar, most green spaces and parks exist in the central part of the city, and these places are not readily accessible to the residents in fringe areas.

Some past studies examined green space policy documents and institutional mechanisms in Mongolia with a focus on urban green space classification and accessibility [16]. Another study attempted to find out how Ulaanbaatar city may increase its green space [17]. However, we do not have a study that explains why Ulaanbaatar does not yet have sufficient green space [18]. Why is increasing green space in rapidly growing urban areas of developing countries so challenging? Considering this question, this study examines policy documents and institutional arrangements that are pertinent to understanding Ulaanbaatar’s urban green space policy actions. We also conducted informal online and in-person interviews with specialists at the Ulaanbaatar City Government Office.

1.1. Need of Urban Green Space in Ulaanbaatar City

In 2016, the city authorities used the online platform to receive public opinions about the city’s general development. They found a growing need among the residents for “a healthy, safe green city”. They also expressed that Ulaanbaatar should become “a city with a favorable living environment” and “a well-governed city based on the participation of citizens and the private sector” [19]. In October 2021, the city government conducted a preliminary survey among citizens both online and in person to create the city’s general development plan for 2040. The results found the following priority areas for the citizens: public area and green space expansion (29.4%), air pollution mitigation (27.3%), soil pollution alleviation (14.5%), waste management (13.6%), noise pollution measures (7%), wastewater treatment (2.5%) and others (5.7%) [20]. Here, urban green space turned out to be the most important issue for the residents.

Moreover, the city’s green space has been shrunk and fragmented [21] (Figure 1). For ger area residents, green spaces and parks are not easily accessible from their homes. With heavy traffic congestion and poor public transit services, parks are not easily accessible.

1.2. History of Urban Planning and Green Space Development in Ulaanbaatar City

To better understand Ulaanbaatar’s urban planning and green space, one needs to look at its historical development from 1921 to 1990. In 1921, Mongolians regained independence after the Mongolian revolution. It then adopted the First Constitution for the People’s Republic of Mongolia in 1924 [22]. This newly independent country, under Russian influence, created urban parks by collecting 3000 tugrugs (approximately USD1) from citizens in Ulaanbaatar city. Moreover, a tax incentive was initiated to promote the citizens and entities who planted trees on their land [18]. In the 1930s and 1940s, trees were planted around the state government building, the National University of Mongolia, and along Peace Avenue. Additionally, urban parks and alleys were created at the backside of the State Government Building, in front of Mongolian School No.1 and the Central Post. In 1954, a government administration was established to prepare seedlings and tree-planting tools for greening the city [18].

Due to the need for a science-based urban development plan, the first general development plan of Ulaanbaatar (also known as the city master plan) was formulated with the support of Soviet Union’s researchers and planners in 1954. This plan stressed a need for urban planners to carefully consider landscaping and gardening when designing new buildings. It also aimed to expand urban green space. For this purpose, the city’s first tree nursery site was established in 1959 [18]. This nursery provided sufficient trees to create Cultural and Recreational Center Park (the current name is the National Amusement Park) between 1960 and 1965.

As more people moved and settled on the fringes of Ulaanbaatar city, the city faced the need to lay out a second urban development plan in 1961. This plan was to be implemented until 1980. During this development period, the city built more apartment buildings. It also added cultural and industrial facilities. The city was then expanded and divided into four districts and three regions [23]. In 1964, Nairamdal Park and Botanical Garden were established, and this new park boosted the expansion of tree nurseries [18].

In the 1970s, due to overpopulation and rapid changes in society, the second urban development plan was revised. The city formulated the third urban development plan in 1976. This plan was to be implemented until 2000. During this period, the city planned to construct more apartment blocks, a fourth power plant, a new airport, and other engineering and social infrastructures (e.g., cultural center, wedding palace, hospitals, and schools). An urban landscaping unit was established at every district’s government office in Ulaanbaatar city to maintain public green space [18,24].

However, the city did not seriously consider the quality of living in the ger residential area. In the beginning of the 1980s, some urban development issues arose due to the increasing population growth. The share of green space per capita decreased while environmental pollution became more serious. Considering these changes, the city revised the third development plan in 1986. This revised plan would be implemented until 2010. Under this general plan, the city authorities kept building apartments and necessary social infrastructures to meet social demands.

However, this fourth master plan abruptly ended in 1990 when the free market and a new democratic political system replaced the centralized political framework. Then, Ulaanbaatar faced a need to privatize land for residents in the early 1990s [25]. This privatization movement attracted more people to come to the city. As a result, the ger area expanded chaotically. To deal with this problem and make Ulaanbaatar one of the international cities, the fifth urban development plan for 2020 was formulated in 2002 [26]. This plan initiated the redevelopment of the ger area into private and public housing spaces. In the process of transforming public land into apartments, open and green spaces shrank. When apartment buildings’ first-floor units were rented for commercial purposes (e.g., restaurants, cafés, mini markets, barbershops, and other types of stores), store owners took over the green spaces by cutting trees [21].

2. Methodology

Study Area

Ulaanbaatar city, the capital of Mongolia, houses almost half (1.5 million) of the Mongolian population and is the hub of education, business, and public entities. The city government recognizes two types of residential areas: ger and apartment/built-up areas. The ger area has expanded on bare hill slopes in the northern fringes of the city without much planning. The apartment area is in the city center and newly expanded southern parts of the city with predominantly new high-rise buildings (Figure 2).

The following discussion in this paper is based on a systematic review of the existing government documents (Supplementary Materials Table S1), which were made available after 1990. Most documents are written in Mongolian (

Table 1. Reviewed documents regarding urban green space policy in Mongolia and Ulaanbaatar city.

Documents Reviewed	Year of Release
Law on Land	2002
Urban Planning and Construction Norms and Rules /БНбД 31-01-04/	2004
Law on Urban Development	2008
Ulaanbaatar 2020 Master Plan and Development Approaches for 2030	2013
Green Development Policy	2014
Sustainable Development Concept of Mongolia	2016
Action Plan for Ulaanbaatar 2020 Master Plan and Development Approaches for 2030	2016
Ulaanbaatar City Mayor Office’s Working Plan for 2017–2020	2016
Green City Action Plan	2019
Vision 2050	2020
General Development Plan of Ulaanbaatar City for 2040	(under draft)

). They are the main documents that reveal Ulaanbaatar city’s green space policy visions, including planning and implementation arrangements.

In addition, field visits and informal interviews with four specialists were conducted. Before conducting the interviews, we prepared open-ended questions and selected two specialists in charge of urban green space management and maintenance from the Mayor’s Office. One was a senior specialist, and another one was a specialist. The third interviewee was selected from auditing companies that had a contract with the Mayor’s Office. The fourth one was chosen from the Division of Policy Implementation at the Department of Housing Infrastructure (currently, the Department of Housing Policy).

The city has implemented the replanning policy that aimed to relocate ger residents to apartment buildings since 2013. Currently, 78 sites within the ger area have been selected for this policy. Knowing this policy, we wanted to identify the extent to which the city authorities in charge have considered the need for creating more urban green space.

First, three interviews were conducted online (using Viber) during the period between 25 February and 28 February 2022. The calls lasted from 30 to 40 min each. The last interview was carried out in person and lasted about an hour. Interview questions focused on their perceptions and observations about the reasons behind the policy failures of securing tracts of land equivalent to 20 m² per capita for green space by 2020. We also asked about the collaboration between government officials and district-level green space specialists regarding information sharing, financing, and capacity. The findings from the interviews helped us better understand our document reviews. The information the interviewees delivered was double-checked with the available documents online.

In analyzing the collected information, we attempted to understand (1) how authorities placed importance on urban green spaces, (2) what relevant actions were recognized in policy documents, (3) how policy implementation was coordinated and arranged, and (4) to what extent the promised plans were feasible. Based on the past policy analysis papers [27,28], which emphasized the importance of specific criteria for analyzing the policy implementation (coordination, recognition, financial feasibility, and implementation experience), we focused on four indicators to analyze the urban green space policy documents: (1) the importance of green space, (2) relevant actions, (3) institutional arrangement, and (4) financial feasibility.

3. Results

3.1. Importance of Urban Green Space in Policy Documents

3.1.1. Laws and Regulations

There are more than 20 legal and policy documents that are directly and indirectly related to urban green space development (ST1). Policymakers and government administrations have paid substantial attention to urban planning and green space development. We selected the most significant national and local policy documents for analysis, including the Law on Land (2002), Urban Planning and Construction Norms and Rules (2004), Law on Urban Development (2008), Ulaanbaatar 2020 Master Plan and Development Approaches for 2030 (2013), Green Development Policy (2014), Green Development Strategic Action Plan (2015), Sustainable Development Concept of Mongolia for 2030 (2016), Action Plan for Master Plan for 2020 and Development Approaches for 2030 (2016), Green City Action Plan (2019), Vision 2050 of Mongolian long-term policy (2020), and General Development Plan of Ulaanbaatar City for 2040 (draft).

Mongolia’s numerical policy goal for urban planning appeared in 2002. It established that per capita public green space must be at least 15 m² for big cities, including Ulaanbaatar [29]. It also instructed how parks could be designed for children’s playgrounds, sports, zoos, and botanical gardens. This document acknowledged that Mongolian cities had very limited green space, but it was silent about how policymakers could prioritize the establishment of more green space. Ulaanbaatar city has similarly responded to urban green space goals without clarifying what types of space would be needed for the city. Instead, the urban development plan of Ulaanbaatar city for 2020 set a goal to increase green space per person to 15 m² by 2020 [30]. As mentioned above, this goal has not yet been achieved.

Currently, Mongolia does not have a law that is specifically designed for creating or managing urban green spaces. However, article 56.6 of the Law on Land stipulates that the landowner should keep at least 10% of the acquired land as green space. Article 12.6.3 of the Law on Urban Development stipulates that at least 30% of any planned area for construction should be devoted to a small park, green space, and car parking lots. Here, the size of green space is not particularly specified.

3.1.2. Urban Development Plans for Green Space

The fifth plan for 2020, which was formulated in 2002, did not make sufficient results. For example, the share of urban green space per person was aimed at 15 m² by 2010, but the city had only 1.9 m²/per person at the time [16]. We identified five reasons: (1) rapid population growth could not be adequately accommodated; (2) the legal framework for urban planning was not appropriate; (3) urban planning, management, and the organizational structure were not adequate; (4) urban development designing standards were not updated in response to social changes, and (5) sufficient funds were not allocated [26].

The Parliament then approved the sixth development plan as “the Master Plan for 2020 and Development Approach for 2030” (hereinafter the plan for 20/30) on 8 February 2013 [30] with the following goals to achieve: (1) a safe, healthy, and green city with the capability of adapting to climate change; (2) a livable city with proper land management, infrastructure, and housing; (3) good governance that engages with the public and private sector through public service; (4) satellite towns and villages based on a decent settlement system; (5) the center of nomadic tourism, which attracts foreign and domestic tourists; and (6) a globally competitive, international business center.

These priorities show that urban green space plays a vital role in the first, second, and fifth goals. In this sixth plan for 20/30, the share of green space per capita was to be 15–20 m² by 2020 and 30 m² by 2030 [31]. Moreover, it mentions that no more land allocation should be allowed from public green spaces. However, there are still some violations of this policy. For example, the Shangri-La hotel complex was built on Children’s Amusement Park, also known as the National Cultural and Recreation Center, in 2009. Additionally, more than half of the Botanical Garden area was set aside for building a medical facility and other facilities (Figure 3) [31]. Similar situations were observed in other cities [5].

In 2021, the city drafted its General Development Plan for 2040. Before drafting it, the city reviewed the implementation status of its past plan for 20/30 and found that only about 30% of the plan had been accomplished [32]. Therefore, this new plan increased its emphasis on policy implementation feasibility. The previous policy plan aimed at increasing urban green space to 30 m² by 2030, but this 2021 draft reduced the goal to 25 m². By 2040, a target of 35–40 m² [33] will not be reached. Given the past track record, in which the city increased 0.5 m² of its green space in five years, it is difficult to see how the city can reach 25 m² by 2030. If this slow progress continues, this 25 m² target will not be met for another 40 years. This raises the fundamental question as to why city authorities set an unachievable urban green space per capita target.

3.1.3. Green and Sustainable Development Policies

The Green Development Policy of Mongolia was Mongolia’s first green development policy to respond to UN SDGs. It was adopted in 2012 and came into force in June 2014. The policy outlines actions for establishing a “green city” [34]. It laid out that green space in Ulaanbaatar’s residential areas would constitute 15% by 2020 and 30% by 2030. However, in November 2021, the Mongolian Parliament repealed this policy as it confuses the implementation of existing policies [35].

In 2016, the central government announced the Sustainable Development Concept of Mongolia 2030. This concept paper expressed Ulaanbaatar’s policy goals for sustainable development, including water resource management, climate change adaptation, and ecosystem conservation. For some reason, it repeated the Green Development Policy of 2014 regarding the percentage goals for greenery in Ulaanbaatar’s residential areas (15% by 2020 and 30% by 2030) [36]. In 2020, this 15% target was not achieved. Then this Sustainable Development Concept was abandoned in 2020.

However, we did not find any other policy document that emphasized the specific share of urban green space growth. One of our informants, who was a landscaping specialist at the Mayor’s Office, said in our interview that the actual percentage of urban green space in the residential zone was only 1.8%. Due to frequent policy shifts, this interviewee said that poor policy implementation might have caused a failure to reach the urban green space targets.

Supporting UN SDGs could have moved the city closer to achieving its green space goals. Goal 11, which is “to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable,” and Goal 13, which is “to take action to combat climate change and its impacts,” are relevant to green space development. Ulaanbaatar city initiated the Green Development Strategic Action Plan, which was a very important milestone for working on these goals [34]. This strategic plan highlighted the importance of public engagement in its implementation through collaboration with citizens, civil society, research institutions, private sectors, and international aid organizations. Its objective 1.5 for cleaner air aimed to increase the carbon sink and reduce soil dust. It instructs that all non-paved areas and plant grass or trees should be paved. New urban parks were also proposed. This strategic action plan, however, did not show clear actions for government officials to follow.

In May 2020, the Mongolian Government issued a long-term development policy named Vision 2050. Among its nine goals, the second goal for “human development,” the seventh goal for “peaceful and safe society,” and the ninth goal for the establishment of Ulaanbaatar’s satellite cities were relevant to green space. These goals aimed to introduce new standards for managing green space. No specific numerical goals on the share of green space per capita were speculated in this document. However, it mentioned a need for cities to reuse rainwater and greywater for irrigating plants and trees [22]. As Ulaanbaatar often suffers from surface and groundwater shortages [37], it is vital to reuse recycled water for irrigation. Water supplies are also essential to plant and maintaining more trees.

3.2. Relevant Actions Recognized in Action Plans

The action plan for 20/30 listed 90 projects, of which 43 were related to the establishment of a “healthy, safe, and green city.” Among these projects, only one project was proposed to improve existing urban parks and build several new parks, particularly in the ger area. For this plan, the city allocated a budget of about 70 billion tugrugs (approximately USD23.5 million) [19].

The Mayor’s Office, which is generally responsible for providing all major urban services, became the main body for the policy implementation. When the Mayor’s Office laid out its action plan for 2016–2020, however, it considerably downscaled the national target of per capita green space. It aimed to have 2.5 m² by 2017, 3 m² by 2018, 4.5 m² by 2019, and 5 m² by 2020. One of our informants, who was a landscaping specialist at the Mayor’s Office, said in our interview that the city planned to increase its share of green space per capita to 8 m² by 2024. If this was the case, the numerical targets of urban green space (30 m²/person) reflected in the plan for 20/30 seem unachievable by 2030.

In 2019, Ulaanbaatar city formulated the Green City Action Plan, which aimed to solve major environmental issues. It highlighted the city’s growing concerns over worsening air, soil, and water quality. It also touched on biodiversity loss and climate change as the major problems. Then, this document highlighted 14 actions to solve these problems. One of them was to develop multipurpose green areas. To expedite the urban green space expansion policy implementation, this document recommends that the city take several approaches to achieve the goal of having 2.4 m² of green space per person by 2024. Given the challenges of acquiring new land for green space, for example, the city would create approximately 2000 m² of green roofs a year. It would acquire 100 hectares of land for green space and a 60 km-long green cycling lane by 2024 [38]. Schoolyards and parking lots could be used for creating green space, such as planting trees.

To reach the projected goals of urban green space growth in the General Development Plan for 2040, four strategic directions and six principles were discussed: (1) to improve the law with an effective implementation system, (2) to create a sustainable source of funding for urban greening, (3) to introduce the appropriate technology to protect and expand urban green space, and (4) to enhance public awareness. The six principles are (1) to organize law enforcement actions to safeguard the quality of living; (2) to improve tree inventory and ecological assessment with land classification and registration; (3) to clarify the responsibilities of citizens, business entities, and organizations for expanding green space; (4) to mobilize domestic resources and capacity; (5) to incentivize private sector initiatives, and (6) to use collaborative and participatory approaches [33].

In the past ten years, through more active collaboration activities with international organizations, Ulaanbaatar has improved the living conditions of ger area residents. The establishment of greenery has been incorporated into this effort. In particular, the Ulaanbaatar Green Affordable Housing and Resilient Urban Renewal Sector Project was launched for the ger area with financial backing from the Asian Development Bank. This ongoing project has attempted to create 10,000 housing units for ger residents by the end of 2027 [39]. As Bodikhand [17] suggests, it is possible to make 77.6% of the total ger area green if the government includes green space in planning and implements it into future projects.

3.3. Institutional Arrangement for Urban Green Space Policy Implementation

To understand how urban green space policies were implemented at national and local levels, we investigated the institutional arrangement. At the national policymaking level, the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development (MCUD) is a major responsible organization for administering laws and rules on green space. The MCUD has the Department of Urban Development and Land Affairs Policy and Implementation Arrangement, which drafted the Law on Urban Development and Norms and Rules of Urban Planning and Construction. Article 56.6 stipulates that 30% of any planned area for construction should be green space and a parking lot. However, this ministry tends to focus mainly on regulating construction and does not strictly observe this 30% mandate for some reason.

Additionally, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) is responsible for engaging in urban green actions. Its Department of Green Development and Planning is authorized to develop policies and programs on the environment, green development, and tourism in line with the country’s sustainable development goals. In addition, the MET is responsible for organizing and implementing the “billion trees” national movement until 2030, which the Mongolian President initiated in 2021. This movement includes: (1) expanding the natural forest area, (2) planting trees in desert areas against desertification, (3) increasing an agro-forestry area, and (4) increasing urban green spaces. Although this program aimed to plant 120 million trees in Ulaanbaatar, it did not have a time-bound action plan for it [40].

The Ministry of Education and Science (MES) collaborates with the City Government to provide various training and advocacy activities. For instance, the MES developed curricula and instructions for general, vocational, and technical education in tree planting and caring. Additionally, the MES is responsible for controlling all schoolyards, university campuses, and other science institutions’ gardens. Some studies emphasized that university campuses can considerably contribute to green space enhancement [41] and are critical drivers for promoting sustainability practices [42]. Therefore, the MES plays an important role in supporting urban green space provision through educational facilities. However, some public school directors traded a major part of schoolyards mainly for apartment blocks. Additionally, as mentioned above, more than half of 34-hectare Botanical Garden, which is a scientific institution under the direct governance of MES, was allocated to a medical facility and other facilities.

The Municipality of Ulaanbaatar consists of two administrative units: the City Governor’s Office (hereinafter Governor’s Office) and the Mayor’s Office. The Governor’s office represents the state and mainly focuses on policy development and planning. It has the Department of Urban Construction and Development and the Department of Capital City Investment in charge of creating green space. The failure of the Municipality to expand green space was attributable to its governing structure. We identified two shortcomings: (1) unclear responsibilities of the municipality and city governor regarding land use and regulation, and (2) insufficient financial support. At that time, green space per capita coverage was 0.12 m² for the entire city.

The Mayor’s Office provides urban services and manages city affairs at large [38]. The Mayor’s Office includes the Department of Landscape and Horticulture (DLH), which is the leading responsible organization for urban green space management and maintenance. This department is responsible for urban landscaping, public property management, urban decoration, outdoor advertisement control, designing, and green space management. It contracts private companies to landscape public lands [43]. In line with its master plans, the Mayor’s Office is expected to increase the participation of individuals, private companies, and local administrative bodies in urban greenery maintenance. It sometimes organizes seminars and workshops. It publishes books and brochures for information dissemination [43]. Here, we found that responsible organizations had different numerical goals for increasing urban green space. For example, the information we gathered about urban green space from the DLH of the Mayor’s Office had plans for 2.5 m²/person by 2017, whereas the Department of Regional and Urban Planning under the Agency of Land Administration, Geodesy and Cartography mentioned 4 m²/person by 2017.

Different numerical goals on the share of green space per capita in those policies and planning documents are also attributable to frequent leadership changes in the city and national governments. After 1990, we found that 11 different city governors took charge of the city [44]. Additionally, in the last 30 years, 16 and 18 ministers were appointed for the Department of Environment and Tourism and the Department of Construction and Urban Development, respectively. Although the terms of office for a city governor and ministers of the MET and MCUD are four years, the average year that mayors governed the city was 2.7 years. As for the ministers of the MET and MCUD, their average years in office were 1.9 and 1.7 years, respectively. Moreover, the names of the departments and organizations have changed many times. For example, the MET was formerly the Ministry of Environment (1992–2008), the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (2008–2012), the Ministry of Environment and Green Development (2012–2014), and the Ministry of Environment, Green Development and Tourism (2014–2016).

Frequent leadership changes tend to restructure an organization and replace officials with new ones. This has negatively affected the stability of civil services, such as implementing development plans and projects [45]. The report from 1995 to 2017 compiled by the National Statistics Office stated that restructuring, reshuffling, and renaming ministries and agencies occurred five times on average from 2012 to 2017 after each parliament, president, and local election. Relating to this point, one of our informants stated that his attempt to create an advisory team with urban green space scientists and experts for the Mayor’s Office was approved by the former city manager, but it was flatly denied by the one who took over later.

The Mayor’s Office cooperates with the Agency of Urban Landscaping (AUL). This is a capital city-owned organization that was established to maintain green space and other public places, such as streets (auto and pedestrian roads), public toilets, and waste disposal sites. The number of AUL workers responsible for green space is limited (about 18% of the total workforce). We looked at the agency’s annual reports from 2017 to 2020 to identify the extent to which the plantation was carried out in the city. We found that more flowers, garden shrubs, and lawns were cultivated during this period.

In 2020, the AUL formulated its strategic plan for 2021–2024. In this plan, the agency performed a SWOT analysis of internal and external working conditions. Considering weaknesses from the internal conditions, it found that the agency did not have (1) special programs or measures to ensure the social and economic security of workers, (2) training for human resource development that may induce worker motivation, (3) monetary incentives and awarding systems for distinguished workers, (4) modern technology for efficient work performance, (5) good coordination between departments and units, (6) monitoring systems, and (6) good community participation in urban greening projects.

Regarding the external conditions, the SWOT analysis found that: (1) Mongolia’s economic instability reduced AUL’s financial capacity; (2) the AUL overly depended on the city’s allocated budget; (3) the extreme weather conditions damaged green space, (6) green areas were destroyed due to the repair work of underground networks such as heating, electricity, and canals.

The Mayor’s Office had also outsourced green space relating to the works of several companies. As of 2022, two companies worked for the Mayor’s Office as external auditors and advisors to monitor whether the implementation of green works was performed within the legal framework. One of our informants, the director of this inspecting NGO, intimated to us that the Mayor’s Office could not select companies that were sufficiently qualified with good experience and professional skills.

Under the DLH of the Mayor’s Office, there is a district-level division of landscape at the central six districts’ government offices. This division has one specialist who is responsible for the environment and green space. Our informant explained to us that the workload and expectation for this expert were beyond one person’s capacity. In addition to these responsibilities, past action plans for green space mandated district-level specialists to organize greenery activities and monitor and report frequently on the implementation process and results.

3.4. Financial Feasibility

Finally, we found that the delay in urban green space expansion was associated with the budget allocation of Ulaanbaatar city, as much of the funding for urban greening has come from the city budget. In general, the budget allocated to green space was scant compared to other issues in the city. For instance, from 2013 to 2016, the annual budget allocated from the city government for the expansion and maintenance of green space was nearly equal to 1% (5.2 billion tugrugs) of the city’s total budget [14,46]. This amount is in no way sufficient for accomplishing urban green space mandates for the development plan.

During this period, the city laid out the following greening activities: (1) maintaining or establishing 27 city and district-level parks, (2) 155.6 land units of boulevards and alleys, and (3) 242 ha of small parks [30]. Only 10% of these action plans were completed. On the other hand, the time-bound goals for vehicle roads and an airway network were 50% and 70% completed, respectively [14].

One of our informants highlighted that the amount of budget allocated for urban green space had not increased in the last five years. If we compare this Ulaanbaatar city’s annual budget for green space development with that of Tsukuba city in Japan, which has only one-sixth of Ulaanbaatar’s population, Tsukuba spends 2.5 times more than Ulaanbaatar city does. Ulaanbaatar’s Department of Landscape and Horticulture attempted to increase the budget by proposing its annual action plan but failed. Ultimately the Mayor’s Office terminated the contract with six companies in 2021 and another three companies in 2022.

We also calculated how much would be needed to achieve the urban green space per capita coverage goal under the Green City Action Plan. We found that approximately USD61 million will be needed, which is about 140 times more than the annual expenditure of the capital city [39]. This means that the city has set out a fiscally infeasible goal.

4. Discussion

Our discussion reiterated the point some past studies have made that urban green space is important to achieve sustainable urban development goals [47,48,49]. However, these studies have focused on the benefits of urban green space for human health and well-being, leaving room for the examination of such situational factors as policy/legal frameworks that buttress the public commitment to sustainability goals. Here, the question we raised was that even though Mongolia had laid out several laws and policies for urban green space with time-bound numerical goals, what went wrong in the implementation of these goals? In short, Ulaanbaatar city achieved none of these numerical targets. Our discussion revealed, for the first time, that the answer to this question can be found in how these goals were planned without feasible land use strategies and financial prospects. Somewhat similar results were reported in cities of developing countries by Eshatu et al. [10] and Badiu et al. [50].

Another reason our study revealed in connection to the policy failure for increasing green space in Ulaanbaatar was the complexity of land arrangements in informal settlements. In fact, past studies are almost silent in terms of urban green space expansion efforts in sprawling informal settlements of developing countries. This knowledge gap is critical as informal settlements tend to embrace a number of serious sustainability concerns over air pollution, congestion, poverty, health, and hygiene issues. As we have seen in the previous discussion, article 56.6 of the Mongolian Law on Land required landowners to keep 10% of their parcels for green space and Mongolian Law on Urban Development required at least 30% of any planned construction site for green space, but these requirements hardly addressed the need for disentangling the land ownership mess in the ger area. Even though some new apartment buildings were constructed in this area, construction companies tend to build parking lots instead of creating green space, partly because green space is more expensive and time-consuming.

Our research also found that the goals which the Mongolian government and Ulaanbaatar city formulated could have been partially accomplished if some critical shortcomings were properly addressed. We found that the three different city government administrations did not coordinate plans by sharing information. This could have been conducted through a policy coordinating agency as many city governments have done. Similar to the case study on Addis Ababa [10], frequent changes in leadership and organizational structures could have impacted policy goal implementation if a smooth transition of power cannot be observed.

In terms of financial feasibility, we stressed the shortage of financial and human capacity to explain the failure of green space policies, which are similar to past studies in other developing countries [6,8,10,50,51]. In the immediate future, the only feasible option for Ulaanbaatar city to increase its green space is to better mobilize external aid and investment from international funding organizations, private sectors, and volunteer groups. Currently, no international aid organizations provide support for green space development in Ulaanbaatar. Instead, the city and its donors pay attention predominantly to ger area re-development by three approaches. One is to move ger residents to another place, which is currently undertaken by ger area land readjustment programs. Another is to move ger residents to apartments, which has been undertaken as part of ger area replanning projects. The third approach is to provide monetary compensation to those who decide to leave their land. Currently, the ger area replanning approach is dominant. For this, the Asian Development Bank, European Investment Bank, and others have provided financial loans [52]. These projects should consider creating appropriate types of parks, such as linear and pocket parks or green roofs, by encouraging community participation [8].

Readers should be aware, however, that our results may be missing other salient factors as our analysis is mainly based on publicly available official documents and informal interviews. Some past studies and essays claim the influence of corruption, for example. We do not disagree, but we did not have documentary evidence to discuss this. Another study can shed light on this by conducting a questionnaire survey among past and present administrators and other types of employees. In spite of its limitations, this paper has offered some invaluable insights into some fundamental shortcomings not only for Mongolia’s policy implementation problems in connection to urban green space creation but also for other cities with similar situations.

5. Conclusions

This paper has identified the reasons behind the shortage of urban green space and the failure of the city government to achieve its numerical goals for so long. In so doing, it examined government laws and policies that are pertinent to green space creation and maintenance. Through our analysis, we focused on four major policy issues: (1) the importance of green space; (2) relevant actions; (3) institutional arrangement; and (4) financial feasibility. As a result, we found that: (1) actions to increase urban green space were weak; (2) action plans were not clearly laid out; (3) where stakeholder coordination was needed, administrators did not have sufficient resources or a framework to do so; and (4) promised plans were not financially feasible. Additionally, these results were supported by findings from interviews with four government specialists.

The findings of this study have several important implications for future urban green space policy implementation and institutional arrangement in rapidly growing urban areas of developing countries. Overall, we found that Mongolia’s policies on urban green space need achievable goals, clear actions, and an approach to achieve, as well as regular monitoring to check implementation levels. The city government needs to allocate a sufficient budget for green space development by improving its capacity to mobilize external funding. It also needs to encourage communities, along with public and private sectors, to participate in planning and implementing policies.