Some time ago, the FBRK editorial team wrote about the project to reduce the area of the Irgiz-Turgai Nature Reserve by more than 20,000 hectares, due to the transfer of these lands to ‘reserve lands’. The project was put forward by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
We sent an official request to the department to find out the real reason for reducing the reserve, as well as to learn the purpose behind the plan to transfer the nature reserve to reserve lands.
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For reference: reserve lands are lands that are in state or municipal ownership. Reserve lands cannot be provided to individuals or legal entities and are considered a stock.
However, the Ministry of Ecology told us that the requested data is classified as official information with restricted distribution, meaning it bears the mark ‘For Official Use Only’ (FOUO). At the same time, the public discussion of the draft resolution on the Open NPA portal ended on 29 February, meaning the draft has already been submitted to the government for consideration.
From open sources, we learned that the area of the reserve was previously 763,549 hectares. Initially, the expansion of the reserve was included in the sectoral programme ‘Zhasyl Damu’ for 2010-2014, approved by a resolution of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan in September 2010. At that time, the area of the nature reserve was increased by 409,962 hectares. The total area reached 1,173,511 hectares.
The decision to expand the protected area was made due to the need to restore and preserve the natural habitats, calving grounds, and migration routes of the Betpak-Dala saiga population. In addition, this natural area is home to rare and Red Book representatives of flora and fauna.
Today, this natural landmark is set to be transferred to reserve lands. Even if that is the case, it is still unclear why the territory of the reserve needs to be reduced as well. Was the preservation of the natural saiga habitats important in 2010, but not in 2024?
It creates the impression that the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology has some particular dislike for these resources: first, saigas are culled, based on dubious biological justifications, then argali and cormorants fail to meet his approval, and now the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources is reducing the nature reserve without explanation.
Indeed, why bother with these unnecessary cause-and-effect links? After all, for example, justifying the destruction of saigas by a lack of pasture is no longer particularly convincing: in the West Kazakhstan Region alone, the total area of reserve lands amounted to more than 2.6 million hectares. Now they also want to transfer the lands of the Irgiz-Turgai Nature Reserve to reserve lands, which, as a reminder, covers over 1.17 million hectares.
Why is Mr Nyssanbayev so keen to hide public property from the public itself? Or is this an attempt to mask his own incompetence?