Env Khazak

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THE MAIN CONDITIONS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Good political, legal and institutional framework has been created in the last years for the

successful solving of environmental issues in Kazakhstan.

After gaining of independence Kazakhstan has proved more than once its commitment to ideas

of environmental safety and sustainable development, having signed the final documents of the

UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio-92), actively participates in the processEnvironment for Europe, has joined important international conventions on climate change,

combating desertification and conservation of biodiversity.

In 1999 the Republic of Kazakhstan has become a Party to the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) (Republic of Kazakhstan

Presidents Decree of April 1999). At the international Forum on Global Climate Change inKyoto Kazakhstan supported initiatives of other countries on creation of international market of

carbon credit. The Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on accession to Annex1 to the Convention on Climate Change has been issued. Kazakhstan has become a member of

the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and has signed Issyk-Kul and NukusDeclarations (1995), aimed at the development of regional action plans on sustainable

development of regional action plans on sustainable development in the Central Asian region.

In February 1997 the Heads of the five Central Asian states signed Almaty Declaration, which

announced year 1998 a Year of Environment Protection in the region of Central Asia under aegis

of the UN. In compliance with the National Environmental Action Plan strengthening the co-operation with the Central Asian states is going on for developing a regional environmental

policy and solving of transboundary environmental problems, first of all, concerning issues of

utilisation of water resources.

The Meeting of the Board of the International Aral Sea Rehabilitation Fund held in February

2000 in Ashgabat, as well as a number of the last international forums on environmentalprotection and development have shown once again importance of strengthening of regional

connections of the Central Asian region. The necessity of solving the priority regional

environmental problems in view of national priorities of the Central Asian countries wasconfirmed at the conducted under aegis UN ESCAP (the UN Economic and Social Commission

for Asia and the Pacific) Meeting on regional environmental co-operation in Central Asia

(Tehran, February 14-16, 2000). Results of common efforts are adopted co-ordinated resolutions

on sub-regional environmental priorities on the basis of the analysis of the Rio process anddialogue of all interested groups. The work has been started on the preparation of the Regional

Environmental Action Plan as a basis for the regional Agenda-21 and reaching the agreement on

social and economic priorities.

For strengthening the participation of the public in the decision-making process the Regional

Environmental Centre has been established in Almaty. The actively working regional network ofthe experts on sustainable development has been formed under the support of governments of the
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countries within the framework of the UNDP project Development of Poten tial of the Aral Sea

Basin.

Currently the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection is actively contacting

international organisations on issues of co-operation in the field of environmental protection.

In March 1998 an Agreement on cooperation in the environmental sphere between the

Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Government of Mongolia was signed. Draft

Agreements on cooperation in the environmental sphere between the Republic of Kazakhstanand Japan, Sweden, and Hungary have been developed. They have been approved by the

appropriate ministries and submitted to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Under the initiative of the Republic of Kazakhstan within the framework of the program

Environment for Europe the waitr use problems are identified as priority for all region of CIS.

In October, 2000 in Almaty the Consultation of the ministers of environment andeconomy/finance of NIS and East Europe will be held for more active attraction of the

investments in water sector.

Attracting foreign investments and grants is an important condition for implementation of the

environmental projects. Within the next few years it is envisaged the financing of 17 components

of the Umbrella project by the World Bank since 2000 to the sum of more than 600 millionUSD; involving Kazakhstan in world process of greenhouse gas emissions reduction with thevolume of grant means up to 1 billion USD for modernisation of technologies and reduction of

emissions, as well as implementing the projects on Caspian Sea region on prevention and

liquidation of oil pollution for sustainable development of oil and gas industry. It is alsoenvisaged the realisation of the agreement with (Japan) on financing two projects on

municipal and industrial solid waste and forestation and protection of forests to the sum of about

50 million USD, and financing of three projects within the soft loan of the Government of Franceon the problems of treatment of the basin of the Nura and Irtysh Rivers from mercury and watersupply of Astana-city.

In the nearest future it is expected to implement the following actions by Kazakhstan and other

countries of Central Asian region:

- To prepare the National and sub-regional Adenda-21 and to evaluate the progress in their

realisation;

- To carry out the review of progress in RIO+10 process, to develop methods of evaluation of

progress, in particular to adapt the indicators on sustainable development for conditions of the

region;

- To participate in preparation for the next session of the Committee on Sustainable Development

(CSD) on the matter Information for decision-makers;

- To adopt the sub-regional approach of ESCAT (in addition to the national approach) to process

of RIO+10 and to adopt the Central Asian representation in the CSD and ESCAT.


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Environmental Education

In overall environmental education in the republic is at a low level. Presently in Kazakhstan 323thousand children studying in pre-school educational institutions, because of the shortage of

trainers who have undergone environmental training, lack of programs and manuals, have been

practically excluded from the ecological educational system. At the schools of the Republicwhere more than 3 million students study, environmental studies are carried out incidentally. The

text-books and methodological manuals on the Ecology used in the educational process are

outdated, and do not reflect the peculiarities of the environmental problems of Kazakhstan. Thereis no unified program for environmental education, and practically no ecological schools,

gymnasiums and lyceums.

Environmental education at higher educational institutions is carried out at a more professional

level. Presently 15 higher educational institutions in Kazakhstan have faculties linked with

ecological subjects, and 1.260 students study there; in 1997 158 specialists-ecologists have been

trained. Studies of the following subjects are conducted: Ecology and Monitoring, Industrial

Ecology, Chemistry and Ecology, Biology and Ecology. Geography and Ecology, andothers.

But higher ecological educational institutions of the international class are missing in the

republic, and there is no specialised training of ecologists-professionals: economists, auditors,

and environmental monitoring managers, and such directions as developing ecological projectsand expertise of projects are not carried out. International requirements while training specialists-

ecologists are taken into account only at the KazGAU, KazGASA, KazNGU, the Karaganda

State University named after E.Buketov, and the Semey State University.

In developed countries from 15 to 20% of the appropriations are envisaged for education and

improving qualification of the specialists and dissemination of the implemented projects amongthe population. On the basis of the Long-term Strategy of the Republic of KazakhstanDevelopment until the year 2030, the Government and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural

Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan have included the projects directed to developing the

overall environmental education into the priority arrangements.

Public Non-Governmental Environmental Organisations

In Kazakhstan there are more than 3000 non-governmental public organisations of various

directions. These are childrens, school, womens, environmental, and educational organisations,

Media and others. More than 300 NGOs are dealing with the environmental and health issues.

Late in 1997 in the city of Almaty the first Forum of non-governmental environmental

organisations that united NGOs of Kazakhstan (170 public representatives) for solving thepriority environmental problems and co-ordinated actions, and for participating in the

implementation of the National Strategy Ecology and Natural Resources (Denmark, Arhus-

1998). Kazakhstan signed the Convention on ensuring access to information, public participationin the process of decision making and access to justice, and on environmental issues. The public

hopes that participation of Kazakhstan in implementing regulations of the Convention shall be in


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overall a progressive process, and promote its considerable progress on the way to solving

environmental issues, and issues of sustainable development.

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