Main Areas of Work
- Maintaining the State Fund of Environmental Information;
- Providing the public service “Provision of Environmental Information”;
- Supporting the information system “State Cadastres of Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan”;
- Maintaining the state cadastre of production and consumption waste.
State Fund of Environmental Information
The activities of the State Fund of Environmental Information are carried out in accordance with Chapter 21 of the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The fund includes collection, storage, processing and distribution of environmental information, preparation of the National Report, provision of public services, expert support for the Aarhus Convention and organization of training seminars.
Detailed Information
Maintaining the State Fund of Environmental Information
In 2018, the fund was supplemented with 20,704 information units. It includes state cadastres of natural resources, data on polluted sites, the waste cadastre, the state register of nature users, environmental impact assessment materials, regulatory documents, national reports and environmental monitoring data.
Specialists process environmental information submitted by state bodies. Processing includes registration and systematization by global, national and local environmental issues and other areas.
Within the public service, 175 applications for environmental information were approved. To transfer materials from paper to electronic format, 9,424 information units were digitized.
National Report and PRTR
The National Report on the state of the environment and the use of natural resources for 2017 was prepared and published on official internet resources.
In 2018, PRTR materials for 926 category-1 nature users were published on ecogosfond.kz.
Technical support was provided for ratification of the PRTR Protocol to the Aarhus Convention and for aligning national legislation with international requirements.
Activities under the Aarhus Convention
National round tables were held on implementation of the Aarhus Convention in Kazakhstan and on regulation of genetically modified organisms.
Consultations were provided to individuals, legal entities and public associations on environmental issues. Four issues of the quarterly newspaper “Ecology of Kazakhstan” were published.
In 2018, 25 seminars were held, including field seminars, where 282 specialists from state bodies, NGOs, universities and nature-user companies were trained.
Information Systems and Cadastres
Support was provided for the information system “State Cadastres of Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan”. Information was collected and entered for 4,090 objects.
Technical support, updating of cartographic materials and integration with other state information systems were carried out.
The state cadastre of production and consumption waste is maintained within the Unified Environmental Protection Information System. In 2018, 13,488 hazardous waste passports were entered, 297 cadastral files were updated and 478 waste disposal sites were added to the map.
Financial Activities and Indicators
In 2018, budget programs financed activities related to international agreements, information support in environmental protection and maintenance of state waste cadastres.
The enterprise income for the reporting year amounted to KZT 164,854.0 thousand, while expenses amounted to KZT 171,642.0 thousand.
The loss resulted mainly from underperformance of income from advanced training courses, depreciation of fixed assets and write-off of inventories.
Issues and Development Prospects
Key issues include the lack of suitable premises for storing the State Fund of Environmental Information, the need to increase staffing and limited opportunities to involve Ministry representatives as lecturers.
Development prospects include reducing the public service delivery period, moving services into electronic format, supporting ratification of the PRTR Protocol and integrating state cadastres with sectoral information systems.
Further plans include strengthening interagency cooperation, developing the waste cadastre, maintaining the unified state environmental monitoring system and creating an interactive version of the National Report.