Legal Aspects of "Environmental Security" in Kazakhstan

The relative improvement of the living conditions in Kazakhstan's ecosystem over the past two decades has mostly been the result of institutional and legal development of the country in protecting the environment. This paper is to assess the environmental governance of Kazakhstan from the perspective of the legislative process and legal developments and its impact on environmental security in this country over the past three decades. Accordingly, the main question is: "What are the environmental security consequences of the developments in the legal aspects of environmental governance in Kazakhstan since independence?" The hypothesis tested in this paper is: “due to the gradual development of stricter laws for environmental protection, the creation of an integrated management structure for environmental protection, applying the experiences of other countries in the field of environmental management, as well as promoting international environmental cooperation, legal developments in the environmental governance of Kazakhstan since independence have led to a relative improvement in environmental security”. This paper is descriptive-analytical and the conceptual framework governing it consists of definitions and theoretical propositions of the concept of environmental security. While confirming the hypothesis, the findings show that Kazakhstan's new set of environmental laws may lead to improving its environmental performance in the coming years in case of efficient implementation through integrating laws in various environmental areas and making environmental laws compatible with the real conditions prevailing at local, national and international levels.