At the COP17 Leaders' Summit on Biodiversity, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized that Kazakhstan, the world’s ninth-largest country by area, is home to extraordinary biodiversity across its vast territory, Qazinform News Agency reports, citing Akorda.
“Preserving this heritage is both a national duty and international responsibility. This commitment is clearly reflected in our new Constitution. For the first time in our history, the Constitution explicitly enshrines the promotion of environmental culture as a fundamental principle of our statehood.
Now citizens are obliged to preserve nature and treat its resources with due care. Protection of a healthy environment for all citizens is one of the major functions of our state,” the President said. "We are convinced that the preservation of our natural heritage must go hand in hand with economic progress.
Our nationwide Taza Kazakhstan or Clean Kazakhstan campaign puts these values into practice. I am delighted to see that this movement goes beyond environmental cleanliness, gains the upper hand in mindsets and in the daily behavior of our citizens, and is becoming the national ideology of our people." Earlier, it was reported that Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrived at the Meridian Expo and Event Center in Yerevan, Armenia, to attend the COP17 Leaders' Summit on Biodiversity.
Addressing the summit, the President called for greater international cooperation to preserve biodiversity.