Afghanistan Forests Under Threat from Logging
11/4/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Afghanistan's forests are under threat from logging, warfare
- Iranian radio
Source: BBC Monitoring Central Asia
Text of report by Iranian radio from Mashhad on 29th August
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 4, 1999
Local sources who visited various areas of Afghanistan have
warned that woods in different districts of the country have
been destroyed in recent years. These souces said on Sunday
[29th August] that drought, the growth in industrial
enterprises in Pakistan and theft of timber, the continuation
of clashes between different factions in the country and the
use of of wood as fuel instead of oil and gas are among the
factors contributing to the destruction of pastures and
woodland in Afghanistan.
According to well-informed sources, 2.5 per cent of the total
territory of Afghanistan, that is 2m ha of land, is forest.
The forest has been vanishing in Afghanistan for various
reasons over the past two decades.
(?Yusuf Nuristani), an Afghan refugee, who has visited the
eastern provinces of Afghanistan, said that very important
forest areas had existed in Konar, Paktia, Paktika and
Nuristan provinces in the past but now an industrial company
producing timber is now operating there. The company illegally
transports a great deal of wood from these areas to Pakistan
every day.