No stop to illegal timber in the east
Tree felling on Spin Ghar (White Mountain), Nangarhar, and Kunar shows no signs of stopping.
Tree felling on Spin Ghar (White Mountain), Nangarhar, and Kunar shows no signs of stopping.
Jailani, 25, a resident of Sangini in Chaparhar area, Nangarhar, says, “Every day the trees are being cut. They are loaded in trucks, some of which go to Jalalabad but most cross the border illegally to Peshawar.”
Sayed Ghias from Barii Morgai area of Pacheeragam district on the border, says, “The trees are taken to Peshawar on mules and trucks at night. Timber is being transported from Pacheeragam to Khogyani and Haska Mina. Then over the mountains of Sheenwari into Tira across the border.”
The forested border areas in Kunar are reportedly beyond the control of the local government. Haji Akhtar Mohammad, a timber trader in the province, says remote areas like Asmar, Chapa Dara, Ghazi Abad and Kamdesh, have been overrun by smugglers for more than two decades.
Shah Wali from Dam village in Chagha Sarai, Kunar, thinks nothing the government does can help since “the reasons why the forests are being cut is not being tackled”. However he did not elaborate on what the “reasons” are.
“The woods are cut, the government cannot do anything. While the customs stop the timber transporters it is only to take a bribe. Then the timber is released. The reasons for why the forests are being cut are not tackled,” he says.
Mountainous Nuristan province is being deforested wherever the road has gone. Mandol, Nangraj and Dawab are some of the affected areas, and timber is being smuggled out.
By stealth
Ghazi Khan, a resident of Sangra in Alingar district says he has seen trucks laden with timber “coming down mostly in the night time”.
Deforestation has damaged the environment “a lot”, says Saidajan Abdiani, the head of Agricultural Unions in Nangarhar. “The forests were cut under various pretexts, and the felling is going on. People don’t know the extent of the damage but it is a big problem for the environment. We are going to be sorry in 10 or 20 years but it will be too late,” he asserts.
Saidajan could not give an estimate of how much forest land has been lost but he confirmed tree felling was rampant. Authorities in agriculture departments in Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar and Nuristan provinces also confirmed forests are being destroyed.
According to Mohammad Husain Sapi, the head of the agriculture department in Nangarhar, “Forests have been cut in every area.” To combat the largescale smuggling of timber, he says agriculture officials have established tribal councils that work with locals to prevent felling of forests. “We have had sessions with locals, and the tribal council has assured them protection for preventing the cutting of forests,” he says.
Engineer Yahya Ghafoorzai, the head of the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) in the east, says they have sent letters to government offices about the illegal cutting of forests. He adds NEPA has also informed the security agencies and provincial administrations but “still illegality exists and the problems remain.”
He thinks Nangarhar has better preserved green areas than the other provinces in eastern Afghanistan. However independent observers believe provincial officials in Nangarhar are not doing enough to protect the environment. But Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the spokesperson to the Nangarhar governor, does not agree. “The security agencies are busy protecting the environment day and night as decreed in a presidential order. Some smugglers have been arrested, and fined,” he claims. According to him, if government officials are caught assisting in the smuggling of timber, they would be prosecuted as per the law.
