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INTRODUCTION
The events of September 11, 2001 in the United States and the subsequent conflict in Afghanistan have affected human lives around the world. The international community is preparing for the impact of these actions, and there has been much discussion about potential consequences and repercussions of the new war now being waged in Afghanistan. Almost all of this discussion and planning has been directed toward the political and, to a lesser extent, humanitarian issues that this war will generate. There has been virtually no consideration of the effects of this conflict on the environment of Afghanistan. This paper is to help focus attention on this burgeoning international environmental disaster and describe some of the specific effects of the war on Afghanistan's environment, including the humanitarian costs of ignoring the link between environmental degradation and political and economic stability.
THE ENVIRONMENT OF AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan has some of the most rugged terrain in the world. It is dominated by the mountains of the Hindu Kush range and to a lesser extent by the Pamir range in the north of the country. A number of these mountains reach over 20,000 feet above sea level (Mt. Rainier, the tallest mountain in the contiguous US, is (14,400 ft). However, much of the country consists of what appears to be an endless stretch of barren rocky hills and low mountains. This broken ground has enabled the people of Afghanistan to fight off numerous invaders, including three wars against the British (1839, 1878, 1921) and most recently the invasion by the Soviet Union in the 1980s. This same terrain that allows fighters to strike and disappear back into the hills has also, historically, enabled wildlife to survive in what appears to be an unforgiving landscape. Mountain ecosystems are important reservoirs of biodiversity. Their isolated nature tends to encourage speciation and the creation of unusual and endemic species specifically adapted to the extreme rigors of mountain life. Afghanistan represents the western edge of the Greater Himalayan mountain chain. This chain was born 70 million years ago when the Indian subcontinent slowly ground into the Asian land mass, raising the largest and highest mountains in the world. The Western Himalayas, because of its isolation and unique ecosystems, is listed as a Global 200 Ecoregion, an Endemic Bird Area of Urgent Biological Importance, and a Center of Floral Endemism. Plants and wildlife in desert and mountain systems are often wonderfully adapted to the rigors of these habitats. However, the harsh conditions make these systems especially fragile and put them at risk from sudden changes, and both deserts and mountains are notoriously slow in recovering from damage. Desertification and slope erosion are two examples of events that occur from damage to these ecosystems, and both are extremely difficult (and expensive) to reverse. Changes that degrade these systems can also easily result in local extinctions of plants and animals.
WILDLIFE IN AFGHANISTAN
Unfortunately, Afghanistan has had almost no history of conservation efforts. Lack of environmental protection combined with a burgeoning human population entirely dependent upon increasingly scarce natural resources has driven many species of plants and animals to the brink of extinction. Seventy-five species of animals and plants found in Afghanistan have been placed on the IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2000), with 35 species of animals listed as either Vulnerable or Endangered.
CONSERVATION IN AFGHANISTAN
Previous to the war with the Soviet Union, hunting and the fur trade was an extensive business in Afghanistan. It was estimated in 1977 that the fur trade involved over 4,000 professional hunters, 25,000 full or part-time smugglers, and a total income of over $4.5 million U.S. (Adil, 1995). After the war, strategies to establish regulations on hunting, creating protected areas, and ecosystem rehabilitation were identified. However, with a lack of a solid and unified government, a descent into civil war, and the resultant severe humanitarian needs, environmental conservation efforts have not been on the forefront of priorities. With the continued political upheaval and civil war, environmental and conservation efforts in Afghanistan have essentially been ignored. This situation has been exacerbated by a recent three-year drought that has affected most of Central Asia, including Afghanistan. This drought has helped to push a continuing downward spiral of environmental degradation into a full-fledged environmental disaster.
DIRECT EFFECTS OF THE PRESENT CONFLICT IN AFGHANISTAN
Bombing
Many military analysts believe that there will be an extensive ground war that will consist of guerrilla warfare, primarily between the Taliban and the combined anti-Taliban forces. Heavy air strikes have been targeting these regions, undoubtedly disturbing and even killing animals in the area. Bombing and ground fighting will also affect other species, such as the large numbers of migratory birds that travel down from northern and central Russia through the Afghanistan highlands to their wintering grounds in India. Endangered species such as cranes and pelicans depend upon staging areas in Afghanistan to rest and find food during the long migration. Disturbance from bombing, aircraft flyovers, and troop activities can drive the birds from these critically important staging areas, with the result that the birds face possible death from exhaustion and starvation.
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Writer Profile
aneel SALMAN
aneel SALMAN Lecturer, Dept of Economics Forman Christian University, Pakistan. Currently a Fulbright Scholar, pursuing PhD in Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Troy, NY USA 12180-3590 Email: aneelsalman@yahoo.com
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Comments
Request sources Zohra Sultan | Dec 31st, 2017
This is an excellent info about the effect of war on the environment. I did not find the sources I need work Citation.
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