The publication of this collection of papers was initiated on the decision of the Kazakhstan Committee within the framework of the international Man and the Biosphere program and Project No. 10, The Impact of Major Engineering and Technological Activities on Humans and the Environment. Both in the past and at present, the Party and the State have attached great importance to nature conservation, the rehabilitation of lands damaged by industry, and the improvement of the human environment. In Kazakhstan, the restoration of natural landscapes damaged by industry, especially ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, has proceeded very slowly. Consequently, the problem of land reclamation through biological and vegetation-based improvement measures has become particularly important. In the disturbed lands of the Altai mining region (East Kazakhstan Oblast), the predominant substrate consists of rocky material, while the polymetallic ore tailings deposited in waste dumps remain uncovered. All these factors create difficulties both for the development of reclamation engineering methods aimed at creating optimal conditions for plant growth and for the selection of promising plant species suitable for the biological improvement of industrial waste dumps. Researchers at the Institute of Soil Science of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, proposed various screening-layer and fill-material schemes. These materials consisted mainly of industrial waste products, including beneficiation-plant sands, fly ash (a by-product of polymetallic industrial complexes), river pebbles, and loamy soils. The Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR and the Central Botanical Garden have been conducting experiments in the Altai mining region involving the cultivation of various plants and perennial herbaceous species on cover materials and stripped soil layers placed over waste dumps. The Karaganda Botanical Garden has carried out studies on the natural recovery and biological improvement of spoil heaps from the Karaganda coal mines, investigating the characteristics of vegetation restoration on waste dumps and identifying promising species of woody plants and perennial grasses. The natural and geographical conditions of the region, the natural regeneration of overburden materials, their distribution according to suitability for biological reclamation, the differences between industrial and agricultural land use, and the growth of the population in industrial areas have largely determined the direction of biological reclamation. Because such reclamation has both forestry and landscaping functions, the resulting vegetation should serve soil-improving, environmental-enhancing, and sanitary-hygienic purposes. The development of a scientific basis for the reclamation of industrially disturbed lands in Kazakhstan will make it possible to establish green forested areas that improve soils, protect against soil degradation, conserve water resources, and provide environmental and public-health benefits, thereby significantly improving the environment as a whole.