Less than a year, with more than 5,000 plants of 13 species adopted from China, an urban ecological barrier around the city of Astana has begun to take shape in Kazakhstan, thanks to the cooperation between the two countries.  

This is a foreign aid projects approved by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology earlier this year. Survey on Astana’s protection forest has been completed, following with a forestation plan designed for the saline-alkaline land and low-lying water-logged land in the Astana region. 

The project will adopt China’s full-fledged ecological barrier construction and management technology to help solve problems encountered in Kazakhstan’s ecological protection and conservation, especially around the capital circle. 

Scientists from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography and Kazakhstan’s S. Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical University and the Committee of Forestry and Fauna are evaluating and introducing suitable plants for breeding of an ecological barrier around Astana.  

Kazakhstan is ninth in terms of total size, and boasts the third largest forest area in Europe and Central Asia, trees make up less than five percent of the overall landscape. However, saline-alkaline land and low-lying water-logged land conditions make it not easy to sustaining forest development. 

Scientists carried out researches on soil improvement technologies for plantations of the ecological barrier and developed an ecological protective forest technology system suitable for local environment. 

Test bases and demonstration zones are being built to try relieving the fragile ecosystem, and finding better protection and conservation for Kazakhstan’s forestry and environment.