Environmental catastrophe looms in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food has released a report, Sustainable Land Management 2007, that details the potential environmental crisis that the country may be facing soon if the government and other organizations do not take action, IRIN reported Monday.

The chairman of the Afghan Organization for Human Rights and Environmental Protection (AOHREP), Abdul Rahman Hotaky, pointed to several reasons for worsening problem. The article notes that he cited “more than 26 years of armed conflict, population displacement and extended drought; the misuse of natural resources; the lack of a law enforcement authority; and the lack of appropriate policies for the environment.”

Agriculture and animal husbandry are the major components of Afghanistan’s economy, but nearly 50 percent of the country’s farmland has not been cultivated for the past two decades. This, in combination with deforestation and desertification, has left more than 80 percent of Afghanistan vulnerable to soil erosion. All of these factors leave the country susceptible to poverty and natural crisis.

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