Head of State reveals plan for Kazakhstan’s greening program

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM – President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev mentioned a program envisaging planting of 2 billion trees in Kazakhstan at the 17th Cross-Border Cooperation Forum in Kokshetau on Thursday, Kazinform correspondent reports.

In his remarks at the forum the Head of State said that Kazakhstan is among the sparsely forested countries. The area of Kazakhstan’s forest fund totals 30 million ha or 11% of its territory. According to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kazakhstan is planning to plant 2 billion trees by 2025.

President Tokayev emphasized that the biggest environmental disaster of the Aral Sea had caused the saline deserts to appear. That, in his words, had a huge negative impact on the environmental conditions not only in Kazakhstan, but in the entire Central Asia. To this end, Kazakhstan and its colleagues in Uzbekistan adopted a program as part of which trees will be planted on the dried-up bottom of the Aral Sea. The trees will be planted on an area of 1.5 million ha by 2025.

Earlier it was reported that 17^th Cross-Border Cooperation Forum had started its work in Kokshetau in virtual format. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Vladimir Putin are set to meet on the sidelines of the forum to discuss the key directions of strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and Russia.