The issue of sustainable development in agrarian economies is rooted not in the scarcity of land resources, but in the quality of their legal and administrative governance. While possessing a substantial land fund and being characterized by a high dependence of rural territories on the agricultural sector, Kazakhstan demonstrates the vulnerability of land-use planning due to large-scale land degradation. The objective of the study is to identify which elements of legal regulation and institutional framework constrain the effectiveness of land resource management in Kazakhstan, and which changes may be most significant for sustainable territorial planning. The empirical basis was formed through a structured survey of 44 experts from the scientific community, public administration, and land-use practice. The responses were analyzed using measures of agreement (Kendall’s W) and non-parametric group comparison procedures. The results indicate the predominance of institutional barriers: weak enforceability of land regulations and a low level of accountability, fragmentation of interdepartmental data, and the insufficient integration of digital cadastral and remote sensing tools into managerial decision-making, as well as limited access of small land users to support and financing for land restoration. The significance of the study lies in the fact that the identified bottlenecks are amenable primarily to legal and administrative measures (strengthening law enforcement, standardizing data exchange, developing public-private partnerships, and financial mechanisms), which directly enhance the sustainability of development and the quality of land-use planning.
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