TimesCast | Protecting Afghan Wildlife
December 2, 2011 - Despite decades of war and environmental destruction, scientists discover several large cat species in Afghanistan, once thought to be extinct.
By Rachel Nuwer on Publish Date December 2, 2011.
When Wildlife Conservation Society scientists talk about their work in Afghanistan, they typically draw puzzled reactions. “Wildlife conservation in Afghanistan?”
Given the enormity of the country’s human needs, protecting animals does not seem like an obvious priority to some people. But because of its place in the world — at the nexus of three distinct biogeographic regions — Afghanistan is a biological crossroads boasting an unusually diverse array of rare and unique animals. And as I report in Friday’s edition of Timescast, scientists suggest that conservation projects can contribute to stabilizing the country.
“As much as we are the Wildlife Conservation Society and we try to save wildlife, a great deal of our efforts are focused on building the human capacity to manage those resources,” said Peter Zahler, the deputy director for the group’s Asia programs, who has worked in Afghanistan since 2002. Supported by the United States Agency for International Development, the society is the only conservation organization presently operating in Afghanistan.
About 80 percent of Afghans live near wildlife and depend upon natural resources for survival, but war has degraded the country to the point of threatening those lifelines. Aside from the ravages of combat, people in
desperate economic circumstances have leveled forests, and much of the land is overgrazed.
Although few animals are hit by bullets or bombs, Mr. Zahler said, “the overall slow but steady loss and degradation of the environment was immense.”
He and his team of local and foreign scientists set out to see how wildlife fared during decades of Afghan conflict. Almost no studies of Afghanistan’s wildlife exist, so the researchers first conducted camera trap surveys to see which species were present. They found snow leopards, Persian leopards and lynx, among numerous other big cats. Because big cats are on the top of the food chain, their presence indicates that the ecosystem is hardier than they had expected.
The survey team also identified 38 bird species newly observed in the country, and scientists genetically analyzed the droppings of giant Marco Polo sheep to estimate the size of the herds, determining that the species remains viable.
Their wildlife surveys complete, the team set out to create grass-roots initiatives. Local communities with direct ties to the land are more concerned about management of their resources than distant governments, the group reasoned, so on-the-ground conservation management is often more effective than initiatives that are centrally planned.
Classroom spaces were set up at the Kabul Zoo to teach people about their natural heritage, veterinary training was arranged so that locals could detect and prevent livestock disease, and scientists schooled community rangers in wildlife protection.
Government involvement was essential, however, given that protected species and national parks cannot be established without legal support. The first law passed by the post-Taliban parliament was environmental legislation that the Wildlife Conservation Society helped draft. The law requires that local people’s wishes be taken into account in the management of protected areas.
In 2009 Afghanistan announced its first provisional national park, Band-e-Amir. The Wildlife Conservation Society helped the 14 villages surrounding the park form a committee that now oversees the park’s management.
By paving the way for natural resource management and community involvement, the thinking goes, the conservationists are contributing to the process of democratization.
“The idea of conservation in Afghanistan may seem unrealistic to some,” the researchers write in a recent paper in the journal BioScience, “But hope is realism with its sleeves rolled up.”