ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the main mechanisms enabling civil society actors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to sustain themselves and remain relevant to environmental protection and social justice building in Kazakhstan. By focusing on nature conservation, the author found that NGOs retained their organizational autonomy and policy impact by both working with existing institutional opportunities, and mobilizing resistance outside the state system. Moreover, in an authoritarian context, some autonomy is a prerequisite for, not an outcome of, local groups’ effective collaboration with international organizations, including UN agencies and global environmental NGOs.
