Coordination Council on environmental protection

Astana, September 29, 2009 (Khabar) - Law enforcement and environmental agencies will come together for the Coordination Council in Astana on September 30. Nurdaulet Suindikov, official spokesman of General Prosecutor’s office of RK has said this to our Agency. The main theme of the meeting will be the issues of combating environmental offenses. The attendees will also consider the problem of deforestation on the territory of state forest fund. Mr Suindikov says over 11 000 hectares of forests were destroyed as a result of deliberate arsons and illegal cutting. Area of natural reserve “Semey Ormany” declined by 6 thousand hectares, while in the Pavlodar region criminals cut down more than one thousand hectares of forest during just last year. Nurdaulet Suindikov has also noted law enforcement and environmental agencies conduct the inspection activities separately, sometimes they lack the logistical support of state bodies to effectively counteract the environmental crimes in districts. In this regard, the forthcoming Council will discuss the issues of improvement of interaction between the responsible parties.

Nurdaulet Suindikov, official spokesman of General Prosecutor’s office of RK:
- We invited all interested agencies, including the Ministry of Environmental Protection of RK, Agricultural Ministry of RK, specialized chambers of the Parliament and probably the leadership of the Presidential administration will take part into the meeting. During the meeting we will discuss the practical problems associated with resistance to environmental offenses and existing problems of institutional design, imperfection of legislation and other issues. After consideration we plan to adopt a set of measures aimed to improve the combating against environmental offenses, and special attention will be paid to the preservation of the forest fund of Kazakhstan.