A New Life for the Aral Sea: Greening of the Dried-Up Seabed Completed on an Area of 475,000 Hectares

At a press conference at the Central Communications Service platform, Deputy Chairman of the Forestry and Wildlife Committee of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan Maksat Elemesov spoke about the ongoing work on the dried bottom of the Aral Sea. The speaker noted that significant work is being carried out to restore degraded lands. In particular, saxaul plantations are being created on the dried seabed, covering a total area of 1.1 million hectares. "From 2021 to 2024, work has been completed on an area of 475,000 hectares. To ensure planting material, the construction of a forest nursery with a capacity of 3 million black saxaul seedlings on an area of 33 hectares has been completed. To carry out work on the dried seabed, extra-budgetary funds were attracted last year. The Kazakh-French joint venture 'KATKO' allocated 2.2 billion tenge, and JSC 'NC 'KazMunayGas' - 420 billion tenge," ...