a recent assessment of land degradation in mongolia indicates that in around per cent of the total territory was degraded to some degree with per cent slightly degraded per cent moderately degraded per cent severely degraded and per cent very severely degraded table the severely and extremely severely affected areas include dry and semidesert lands of the lake uvs basin the great lakes depression and dundgobi and domogobi aimags annex iv map this change has happened due to increased livestock numbers and the changes in the composition of livestock herds the consequences of a changing livestock herding pattern and the overexploitation of land and plant resources coupled with the effects of climate change have led to a decline of animal and plant habitat areas and loss of resources which has become the main contributing factor to the increase of species to be categorized as endangered