Afghanistan pistachio trees fall

Opinion: May 29, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By MOHAMMAD SHAHPUR SABER

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

BADGHIS, Afghanistan — Mullah Samandar finds it hard to control his emotions as he swings his ax into the trunk of the pistachio tree that will serve as the only source of fuel for his family.

“I cry every time I cut down a pistachio tree,” the 55-year-old said, “but times are hard, and I do not have a job, a salary or any opportunity to find a job.”

About 40 percent of Afghanistan’s 1 million acres of pistachio trees has been destroyed over the last 30 years, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. The problem is particularly severe in the northwest province of Badghis, which has the highest concentration of pistachio forests in the country. Residents there blame grinding poverty for leaving them with no alternative but to use the trees as a source of firewood.

Gol Ahmad Arefi, former director of agriculture in the province, said that 50 percent of the province’s 234,750 acres of pistachio forests, which once produced a crop valued at $100 million annually, has been destroyed. An additional 500 acres disappear annually, he said.

GOVERNMENT TO BLAME?

“The process will continue as long as the government does not provide the people living near the forests with fuel,” he said.

Government officials acknowledge that the shortage of fuel is a problem and say they are attempting to address it.

But others say local residents need to be educated about the importance of pistachio trees, many of which grow wild, and the value of their crop.

Gholam Haidar Haidari, the director of environment and management of natural resources in the province, said his office is set to launch a new program giving local people responsibility for protecting the forests as well as the right to harvest their produce.

“The strategy orders that natural forests be given to the people to use their products, and take an active part in their revitalization and rehabilitation,” he said.

Arefi agreed with this approach. “When the elders and residents of the area are held responsible, they won’t cut down the forests,” he said. “The government should also tell them to plant new saplings annually and provide them with assistance.”

But some, like Abdolmajid Shekib, a member of the Badghis provincial council, say the problem of deforestation extends far beyond poor people seeking a source of fuel.

“The government cannot control these areas properly or impose the rule of law on powerful people,” he charged. “After the collapse of the Taliban, senior government officials have been involved in cutting down forests” for their own profit, he claimed.

Abdorrazaq Atef, 70, a farmer, alleged that guards hired by the government to protect the forests were part of the problem. “The guards ... take money from the people and let them cut down the trees,” he said.

A forest guard, who asked that his name not be used, doubted that much could be done to slow the rate of deforestation. “The process will continue. Everything will be gone by the time the government wakes up,” he said.

Mohammad Shahpur Saber is a reporter in Afghanistan who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services