Kazakhstan’s forest cover increases 1.2% since 1991

Kazakhstan seeks to increase its forest cover from 13.7 million ha to 14.5 million ha by 2030, the country’s Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Yerlan Nyssanbayev said, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.

photo: QAZINFORM

The country seeks to increase its forest cover from 13.7 million ha to 14.5 million ha by 2030, which is about 1 million ha in seven years. In this regard, the Head of State set the task of planting 2 billion trees in the state forest fund. Since 2021, the country has planted 1 billion 150 million trees in the area of 736,000 ha, including 306 million trees across 205,000 ha in 2024, said Nyssanbayev during a meeting of the Parliamentary Commission on Sustainable Development Goals.

Photo credit: Soltan Zhekssenbekov/Kazinform

He went on to add that it’s planned to establish 104 forest nurseries and six forest tree seed facilities.

The Head of State also instructed to plant 15 million trees in populated areas, with around 12 million seedlings have been planted in the past four years, said Nyssanbayev.

According to the minister, Kazakhstan’s forest cover has risen from 3.8% to 5% since 1991. The country’s total green cover now stands at 30.9 million ha, including 13.7 million ha of forecast cover or 43.13%.