This page provides a preliminary summary on the following items for Kazakhstan:

1. Spatial Planning
 

1.1 Legislation and Regulations

1.2 Administrative Competencies

Committee on Land Resource Management of the Ministry of Agriculture (former State Land Committee) is responsible for state control on land utilisation and monitoring. No further information received.

1.3 Coastal Policy

The North-Caspian water area with the Volga Delta and Ural Delta has been declared a reserved zone within the Kazakhstan area. Activities in near-mouth regions of Ural and Volga Rivers are limited, which was fixed within a radius of 50 km from delta parts protruding to the sea, as well as other places of egg-laying. A protected coastal reserved zone is marked at 28 below sea level. In 1978, the Ural water area and flood plain up to the mouth of the Barbastau River was included into the reserved area.

2. Environment
 

2.1 Legislation and Regulations

2.2 Administrative Competencies

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection (MNREP) formulates strategic plans in the field of environmental protection and exercises control over their implementation, submits proposals to the government on the solution of environmental issues, co-ordinates the activities of other executive bodies performing functions of environmental protection and environmental management as well as exercises control over departments. The State Committee on Emergency Actions is entrusted with general guidance of the state emergency prevention and response system. In this capacity it is allowed to approve and co-ordinate norms, standards and regulations, supervise the state expertise in this field, organise scientific study and training, as well as exercise state control and supervise state inspection on emergency prevention and response. Local administrations (Akimats) and MNREP regional departments perform functions of environmental management on a local level. Local administrations and representative bodies have the right to issue their own decrees and decisions within the established territories. Permission distribution, monitoring and control for the observance of environmental conditions and measures on their implementation are mostly carried out on a local level.

2.3 Environmental Policy

Transition to ecologically safe and sustainable development is among the priority directions of the Kazakhstan Development Strategy, to be realised in 5 stages: 1998-2000, 2001-2010, 2011-2020, and 2021-2030. The National Environmental Action Plan is part of the first stage of the strategy, and was prepared on intersectoral basis. Within the framework of NEAP a Joint Announcement of the Ministers of the Central Asian countries was signed stipulating the development of a Central-Asia Regional Environmental Action Plan. The Concept of Ecological Safety determined strategic directions of ecological state policy as well as a system of organisational, legal, economic and social activities for environmental protection. Strategy 2030 Ecology and Natural Resources was developed taking into account the Environmental Programme for Europe, identifying long-term prospects of policy and environmental protection integration, one of its priorities being the establishment of an environmental protection management system. Payments for environmental pollution have been defined, but the quantity of payments for exceeding limits is not correlated with scale of damage and payment rates often differ in various regions of the country. The formulation of bilateral agreements with governments of other countries in the field of environmental protection has been initiated; relations with international and regional governmental and non-governmental organisations as well as financial institutions on bilateral basis are also developing.
 
 
 

3. Nature Conservation
 

3.1 Legislation and Regulations

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection is responsible for developing governmental policy in the field of protection, reproduction and utilisation of natural resources as well as co-ordinates interaction among ministries, departments, local authorities and the non-governmental sector. The role of territorial bodies in the management of natural resources was increased.

3.3 System of Protected Areas

The North-Caspian water area with the Volga Delta and Ural Delta has been declared a reserved zone within the Kazakhstan. At present the status and regime of the ‘State Reserved Zone of the North Caspian Region’ is determined by the Law on Specially Protected Areas (1997). Other protected areas include National Memorial ‘TG Shevchenko’s Willow’ in the Fort Shevchenko (1850), Karagy-Karakol state sanctuary, Novisk state sanctuary, Shortanbay state sanctuary and Aktau-Buzachin state sanctuary. Payments for natural resources utilisation and for natural resources protection and reproduction have been defined, however current problems include: not all the types of pollution are included, weak incentives for rational use of nature, weak development and an incomplete legal base.

A new edition of the Red Book was recently published. Priority directions in the Kazakhstan Development Strategy include sustainable use of natural resources and animal and plant diversity conservation. The NEAP provided relevant approaches to the development of a National Strategy and Action Plan on Biological Diversity.
 
 

4. Sectoral Development
 

4.1 Coastal Defence

Reconstruction of the West Prova protective dam, for the protection against the rising Caspian Sea level, has started. The facilities’ construction plan was not executed because of bad financial showing, however, construction did proceed in 1999. Research for water level fluctuation forecasting, coastal floodplain mapping as well as preliminary notification of local administration about coming disasters has been part of the work plan of the Caspian Regional Thematic Centre (CRTC) on Sea Level Fluctuations (Almaty).
 
 

4.2 Recreation and Tourism

Special appeal in the sense of tourism have the Caspian Sea, Ural river, east part of the Volga Delta and to a lesser extent the Emba river. The Ural River is used for mass recreation to spend weekends in summer time and for specific kinds of recreation such as hunting and fishing. The north Caspian coast - except for protected territories - is also very conducive for amateur hunting and fishing. Due to its climate, the Mangystau region has very good conditions for recreation. North and south of Aktau city, many resorts were built up on the coastline, which enjoy wide popularity. The coast of the Caspian Sea within the Atyrau region is practically unsuitable for establishment of resort industry, construction of hotels etc. because of a lack of beaches and extremely extended shallow waters with depths up to one metre.

4.3 Fisheries and Aquaculture

Fishery is concentrated in the area of Ural and Kygach rivers, near-mouth zones and the north Caspian Sea. The water area of the Northern Caspian, except for littoral territories, is closed for fishing because of its reservation. Over the years, the share of Kazakhstan in general catches in the Caspian Sea has made up about 8-10%, approx. 25-27 thousand tons. Most important to the fishery sector is the catch of sprat. During recent years sturgeon catches have shown a decrease due to the regulated run-off of the Volga River, at which the most productive hatchery places were cut off. The fishery sector has been in critical condition over the last few years. A rise in the prices of energy resources, production equipment for processing raw materials and its transportation as well as many other factors have made the fishery sector less and less profitable. Furthermore, the efficiency of fishery has sharply decreased during the period of sea level rise. Especially concerning valuable fish species, the scale on which poaching takes place grows every year. The role of Kazakhstan in reproduction of surgeon species is expected to grow in the coming years.

4.5 Transport and Energy

Railway and automobile highways play an important role in transportation, such as the connections between Astrakhan - Atyrau, Atyrau - Makat - Kandagach (Atyrau region) and the railroads Makat - Beineu - Kungrad, Makat - Beineu - Mangyshlak (Mangystau region). The existing network of roads demands reconstruction. Basic flows of air transportation are based on airports in Atyrau and Aktau, the first of which is in need of improvement as well as the take-off and landing strip in Bautino. Agreements have been made as part of the 'Baku Declaration’ and the TRACECA programme [26] to encourage the development of a transport corridor on an East-West axis from Central Asia, through the Caucasus, across the Black Sea, to Europe. The corridor would include all forms of transport, including air, automobile, pipeline, rail, and sea as well as telecommunications.

Kazakhstan is important to world energy markets because it contains significant oil and gas reserves. Almost half of Kazakh production comes from three large onshore fields - Tengiz, Uzen, and Karachaganak. Kazakhstan's pipeline system is fragmented, consisting of the two export pipelines in the west, the import pipeline in the east, and a smaller internal line in the south. Other oil export pipeline options are being explored such as the Atyrau - Novorossisk oil pipeline to be carried out within the framework of the international Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).  ^[27] A National Action Plan on Offshore and Land-based Oil Spills Prevention, Preparedness and Response of the Republic of Kazakhstan was developed in order to reduce the impact of oil. Due to a lack of infrastructure Kazakh gas production has been hampered. Five branches of pipelines are in the process of construction, which would allow processing excess gas and reducing daily gas flaring. To reduce pollution, wind energy and the construction of a wind power plant have been introduced in the Atyrau region. Relevant laws include the Law on Petroleum (1995) and the Safety Regulations and Environmental Protection in the Construction and Exploitation of Underwater Pipelines and Cables connected with Oil Activities (1996).

4.6 Harbours and Shipping

The main sea gate of Kazakhstan in the Caspian Sea is the port in Aktau city, its basic industrial activity being trans-shipment of cargoes of e.g. metal products and bulk cargoes. The seaport Bautino is the base of the fishing fleet and planned as the basic base of offshore oil activities in the long term; it requires reconstruction. The port in Atyrau is - considering location and capacity - basically a river port, directed now on service of coastal transportation and underwater development of rakusha for agricultural needs.

4.7 Industry

Industry is the most important sector in Kazakhstan's economy its leading branches including fuel, chemical and fish production. The Aturau region is the oldest oil-extracting area of Kazakhstan. Of the republican stocks, 50.9 % of extracted oil stocks and 10% - gas 4,1 % - condensate are concentrated on its territory. The largest deposits of the Atyrau region are the Tengyz deposit, Korolevskoe, Kenbai and the Imashevskoe deposit, all of which are located in the coastal zone. In the Mangystau region, 23,4% of extracted oil stocks, 8% of natural gas and 100% balance reserves of rare minerals, 3,2% of uranium and 90,5 % of cut stone of the national total are concentrated. During the last years, petroleum production has fallen in the region, due to the reduction of petroleum production on the Uzen deposit. A number of complexes have been established directly on the coast, including a significant part of fishing bases, some above-salt hydrocarbon deposits and some industrial communities. Prevailing problems resulting from industry are accumulating in environment of production wastes and forest degradation.

4.8 Agriculture

Agriculture is rather undeveloped and mostly based on nomadic animal breeding. The Kurmangazy, Balykshi, Isatai areas of the Atyrau region suffer most from flooding caused by the changing Caspian Sea level, resulting in more than 70% of agricultural manufacture losses. In particular the southern part of Kazakhstan is mainly agriculturally orientated. In this region the most common problems are a deficit of water resources, pollution of water bodies by wastewater, degradation of pastures and destruction of cultural and natural monuments.
 
 

5. Framework for the Development of ICZM
 

Conventions ratified by Kazakhstan are:

6. National Achievements in the Field of ICZM
 

References