The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and its subordinate committee for forestry and wildlife failed to review within the established deadline a repeated application for granting the Petropavlovsk Botanical Garden the status of 'Scientific Natural Object — National Heritage'. The process of recognising the object has been dragging on for three years and has now been postponed again to 2026.
According to Vlast.kz, the procedure for granting the status began in 2023, when, after the approval of the relevant rules, the Public Association 'Botanical Garden "Tabigat Balalary"' submitted an official application to the forestry committee.
However, according to representatives of the garden, the commission was unable to review the matter in a timely manner: a meeting scheduled for early 2024 never took place.
In turn, the association appealed to the Administrative Court, which obliged the committee to re-examine the application and make a decision. After this, a commission meeting was held, but all members voted unanimously against granting the status.
On 2 August 2024, the court declared the committee's refusal unlawful and ordered the documents to be re-examined within one month of the decision coming into force. The court also noted violations in the commission's work — incorrect composition, failure to meet deadlines, and lack of justification for the refusal.
The decision came into force on 8 October 2024; however, according to the garden's management, the committee refused again. An attempt was then made to appeal the decision within the Ministry of Ecology itself, which also refused to uphold the complaint. Seeing no other legal means to resolve the issue, the garden's management took the Ministry of Ecology itself to court.
In January of this year, the parties entered into a mediation agreement. The document obliged the Ministry of Ecology to hold a commission meeting and send the materials to the government by 10 October. However, the garden's director, Artur Ryazapov, claims that the ministry and the committee failed to fulfil their obligations.
"The ministry and the committee nearly had a whole year to send the documents to the government. We hoped the issue would be resolved in 2025, but they never held a commission meeting. In the end, they used an old protocol from 2024, which stated 'refuse to grant the status', and sent it to the Ministry of Justice," he explained.
According to the director, the Ministry of Justice refused to register the negative protocol as it was not subject to approval. The deadline for reviewing the matter — 10 October — has passed, after which the departments stated that the botanical garden could only submit documents next year. It is noted that the ministry and the committee had time since 2023 to finalise the rules and create a register of scientific natural objects.
"We have been waiting for a decision since 2023, 2024 and 2025 have passed, and now we are being told to wait another year. Even though the ministry had eight months to review the issue," he said.
Artur Ryazapov noted that the garden intends to continue its fight and is preparing another application to the court.