On June 10, 2009 the Board on Civil Affairs of the Astana City Court considered appeals by Green Salvation, the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights, and the NGO “Shanyrak” and by the Chief State Sanitary Doctor. The case was submitted on behalf of the residents of the village of Berezovka (Western Kazakhstan Oblast).
    In their appeal, submitted on May 14, the plaintiffs requested the that “the decision of the Specialized Interregional Economic Court (SIEC) of Astana City on April 30, 2009, regarding the failure of the government and ministries to act, be overturned as illegal, and the case sent to be considered on the grounds of its legal requirements by another judge.”

   There is no other way to describe what is going on in Kazakhstan’s specially protected natural territories.  In the Ile-Alatau National Park, aside from the construction of resorts, restaurants, sports facilities and nightclubs, sanitary felling of the forests is taking place in practically all of the gorges. According to the law, this is permitted, but must be conducted in strict compliance with established rules.
    That which we see in the photographs is more like the industrial preparation of timber in the vast expanses of Siberia than of sanitary felling.  Is this really sanitary felling?  Maybe the forest plots are being cleared for the construction of the next private restaurants and cottages?  Or to make money on the sale of timber?  Did the initiators of these clearings consider the environmental and social consequences?  Isn’t the sanitary felling of forests being conducted too widely and uncontrollably in the national parks?