At the meeting of the Government chaired by the Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev, issues of preservation and rational use of biological diversity of Kazakhstan were considered. Vice Minister of Agriculture, Yerlan Nyssanbayev delivered a report on the work done and the operational and systemic measures taken.

As Y. Nyssanbayev noted, the total area of ​​the forest fund of the Republic is 29.4 million hectares. Only 4.7% of the country's territory is covered with forests. Taking into account this fact, since 2004, round timber export has been banned, a moratorium on all kinds of saxaul cuts has been declared since 2015 until the end of 2018, in 2017, selling saxaul in trade outlets and sanitation logging in coniferous forests, including the development of burners were banned.

To increase the amount of planting, the Ministry of Agriculture together with regional akimats plans to approve a step-by-step Plan to increase the volumes of forest reproduction, taking into account the creation of green zones around regional centers.

Also, in accordance with the Development Plan for Special Protection Territories, the Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve in the delta of the Ili River in Almaty region and the national park Tarbagatay in East Kazakhstan region will be created next year.

"The order of the Head of State to create a green zone around Astana is under special control and the planned volumes are being fulfilled," the Vice Minister of Agriculture said.

Yerlan Nyssanbayev also spoke about the work to strengthen the fight against poaching. In 2017, the number of civilian weapons was legislatively limited to the amount of 4 units per hunter. A ban on spring hunting was introduced and the amount of wild fowl taken from nature in one hand is limited to five individuals per day.

To prevent the manifestation of corruption among the inspectorate of state organizations, in June 2017, an operational group "Sapsan" was created. As a result of its activities, during the five months of this year, 16 violations of environmental legislation have already been identified. Y. Nyssanbayev also proposed to tighten the penalties for poaching.

In addition, measures are being taken to increase the number of saigas. For today, the livestock of animals has increased from 108 thousand individuals to 152 thousand.

The Vice Minister stressed that in the field of fishery development, the main task is to prevent the decrease in the biological diversity of water bodies. It is proposed to introduce a norm obliging users to carry out stocking in quantities in proportion to the allocated fishing quotas.

In conclusion, the issue of developing a concept paper on biological resources for the medium term was considered. It will reflect the development of interrelated sectors — forestry and woodworking, greening settlements, creating green zones and plantations, conserving biological diversity in general.

Also, in the course of the meeting, general director of the State Forest Reserve "Ertis Ormany" Kuandyk Baibolov, director of the Verkh-Ubinsk Forestry of the East Kazakhstan region, Grigory Chemodanov, akim of the Akmola region Malik Murzalin, akim of the Atyrau region Nurlan Nogayev, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Agriculture Askar Myrzakhmetov made speeches.

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