This study is devoted to the analysis of the legal aspects of the formation and evolution of the institution of territories with unfavorable environmental conditions in the legal system of Kazakhstan. Despite the presence of certain norms in national environmental legislation aimed at protecting the environment and ensuring environmental safety, a comprehensive and systemic legal regime for environmentally disadvantaged areas has not yet been formed in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The lack of clear legal criteria for classifying territories into this category, as well as the uncertainty of the legal status of such territories, complicate the implementation of measures for their rehabilitation, compensation for environmental damage, and social protection of the population. All of this determines the relevance and practical significance of this research topic. The Aktobe region, with its characteristic man-made environmental problems, was chosen as the empirical base. A detailed analysis of the provisions of environmental legislation that determine the procedure for assigning territories the status of an environmental emergency zone or an environmental disaster zone was carried out. The study identified regulatory issues caused by the lack of a systematic approach to the classification of territories degraded by industrial activity. Empirical data characterizing the state of the natural environment in the region under study - a significant excess of pollution standards for the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and soil cover - allows us to justify the need to modernize the legal mechanism for regulating these territories. Recommendations for improving the regulatory framework have been formulated: the introduction of additional criteria for classifying ecologically unfavorable areas, the optimization of administrative procedures for recognizing areas as crisis zones, and the application of a differentiated system of social guarantees for residents of industrial areas.

NURUTDINOVA A.Z.

PhD, associate professor, head of the department of Jurisprudence, K. Zhubanov Aktobe regional university, Aktobe, Kazakhstan.

E-mail: ainur_zharylgasynkyzy@bk.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3778-563X

BEKBAUOVA A.A.

Master of law degree, senior lecturer, K. Zhubanov Aktobe regional university, Aktobe, Kazakhstan

E-mail: bekbauova1969@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1169-588X

MURSALOVA L.A.

Master of law degree, senior lecturer, K. Zhubanov Aktobe regional university, Aktobe, Kazakhstan

E-mail: Lazzat_mursalova@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2767-4337

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environmentally degraded territory, ecological disaster zone, environmental legislation, special legal regime, Aktobe region, anthropogenic pollution, social protection measures, Aral Sea basin