Kazakhstan Allocated Less than Half A Percent of State Budget for Ecology in 2024

Kazakhstan's Ministry of Ecology recently released its 2024 budget expenditure report, reports Orda citing Ecostan News.

The Ministry's budget was 85.9 billion tenge (approximately $186.7 million at 460 tenge per dollar), representing 0.36% of Kazakhstan's republican budget.

By the start of 2025, the Ministry had utilized nearly all the allocated funds, spending 85.63 billion tenge, or 99.73% of the total budget. Only 231.6 million tenge remained unused.

The funds were distributed across 12 budget programs, with five significant initiatives accounting for 97% of spending:

• Forest and wildlife conservation, 59.7 billion tenge with only a minimal underspend of 282,000 tenge.
•  Environmental and weather monitoring received 12.1 billion tenge, which was fully utilized.
• General ecological coordination services were allocated 8.5 billion tenge, with just 4.4 million tenge left unspent.
• Environmental quality improvements received 2.2 billion tenge, though 226.9 million tenge remained unused.
• Basic scientific research funding stood at 1.06 billion tenge, all spent.

The remaining 3% supported various smaller initiatives, including scientific research advancement (846.1 million tenge), green economy transition (680.4 million tenge), and wildlife conservation projects such as the Turanian tiger reintroduction program (542.8 million tenge).

Additional funds went to greenhouse gas reduction efforts (265.6 million tenge), event expenses (23.1 million tenge), civil servant training (9 million tenge), and participation in OECD initiatives (6.7 million tenge).

Original Author: Rimma Karatayeva