Environmental Issues in Kazakhstan

Introduction

Kazakhstan, once a republic of the USSR, gained independence in 1991. Comparatively large in land area (ninth largest in the world) with a modest population of 17 million, Kazakhstan is among the world’s most sparsely populated countries. Kazakhstan, located in Central Asia landlocked and distant from the open oceans, shares borders with Russia to the north; China to the east; Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan to the south; and the Caspian Sea to the west. Most of its territory consists of flat, semiarid steppe grasslands though major mountain systems ring the southeast, east, and northeast and desert prevails in the southwest. Kazakhstan’s economy is largely based on its vast natural resource wealth, particularly petroleum.

Kazakhstan became a full-fledged Soviet republic in 1936. Governance largely emanated from distant Moscow, and Kazakhstan became a location for exiled political prisoners, a forced settlement of nomadic populations, the center for Soviet space...