In the Republic of Kazakhstan, responsibilities for MEAs are divided among various departments in the Ministry of Environmental Protection, depending on the specific competences of the respective departments. For each MEA, the Ministry designates a responsible official. Overall management of MEAs is supervised by two vice-ministers, and one department in the Ministry focuses on facilitating synergies among the different MEAs. For more information on the Ministry’s work on MEAs,
see http://www.nature.kz (in Russian).
Initial preparatory work for becoming involved in a convention’s development is done by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, which works with an expert panel and assesses the necessary measures for implementing a particular MEA. Accordingly, the Ministry coordinates various initiatives and projects that facilitate the signing or ratification of an MEA. For example, there are projects designed to assist Kazakhstan in fulfilling its commitments under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), and to build capacity for biodiversity information management. There is a Climate Change Center that is working on the process of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, and there is a comparable Center to Combat Desertification. In general, the experts involved in these projects assist the Ministry in determining the nature of its involvement in different MEAs.
The results from the assessment and evaluation of the projects are submitted to the Ministry. If submitted materials indicate that the MEA is in Kazakhstan’s best interests, the Ministry makes the decision to pursue participation in the MEA’s development.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the primary responsibility for negotiating all international agreements (MEAs), while the Ministry of Environmental Protection participates in MEA negotiations in its substantive capacity as the official body responsible for environmental protection.
For information on the POPs project, contact Marat Ishankulov at marat.ishankulov@undp.org.
For information on the Climate Change Center, contact Kanat Baigarin at infa@climate.kz