Exploring how the timber policy is fueling the insurgency in Afghanistan.

1. TIMBER AND INSURGENCY IN AFGHANISTAN
Mishkat Al Moumin, Ph.D.

2. BACKGROUND
 Afghanistan is land-locked country located in south Asia
boarded by Pakistan from the south and east, Iran from
the west.
 According to United Nations Assistant Mission in
Afghanistan 80% of the Afghani population live in rural
areas and are directly dependent on natural resources for
their livelihoods; small scale framing and forest
products.

3. LIVELIHOOD
 The population of Afghanistan has been estimated at 23.6
million, (2005), 79% of the total population lives in
villages and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 822 $US.
 Only 10-12% of the total Afghanistan population has
access to electricity; fuel-wood is used for cooking and
heating. Traditionally, wood—timber and cedar—is used
in construction.

4. PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT OR
TRIGGERING INSURGENCY
 Feb 2002, Afghani President Hamid Karazi banned all
timber cutting and the timber industry has shut down.
 Rather, a new type of business operates featuring
smuggling the timber to Pakistan.
 Former local commanders joined by their locals formed
what is known as the timber maifa.

5. FLASHBACK
 During the Soviet invasion of 1979, different
Mujahedeen fractions—who stood against the
invasion—sought sanctuary in the timber forests which
formed a strategic hiding.
 The Soviet army cleared large areas of the forest during
the confrontation with the Mujahedeen. The Mujahedeen
started the process of exchanging timber for weapons.

6. WHY PAKISTAN?
 After experiencing a devastating flood, Pakistan issued a
ban on all timber cutting in 1993. The ban did not take
into account the county’s needs for timber and triggered
a massive deforestation process in Afghanistan

7. WRONG POLICY
 According to the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), the decree has proven “difficult to
enforce.” Specifically, UNEP noted that the decree is
difficult to implement in eastern provinces such as
Kunar, Nuristan, and Nangarhar, the provinces in
Afghanistan where the timber forest is located and where
the timber cutting continues to take place.

8. KUNAR AND NURISTAN
 Kunar and Nuristan are remote from the capital, which
makes it harder for the fledgling government to provide
services.
 The rough landscape results in isolating the two
provinces completely during the winter. Thus, cutting
timber provides the populace with a short-term economic
survival strategy

9. MAPS OF KUNAR AND NURSTIAN
Kunar
Nurstain

10. ISOLATED COMMUNITIES
 The communities in Kunar and eastern Nuristan are
highly conservative and largely influenced throughout
history by more extreme interpretations of Islam.
 The landscape of Kunar and Nuristan provides a strategic
sanctuary for the insurgents who can launch their attacks
and survive in mountains for weeks.
 Thus, the valleys of Kunar and Nuristan are dangerous
and known by the U.S soldiers as the valleys of Death.

11. WHO OPERATES THERE?
Former Mujahedeen and terrorist organizations operate in
Nuristan and Kunar, including:
 Lashkar-e-Toiba, Founded in 1990 in Kunar province, a
terrorist organization that is “a signatory to Osama bin Laden's
International Islamic Front for Jihad against the US and Israel
 Taliban, Students of the Islamic movement a radical Sunni
group who governed Afghanistan since 1996 until they were
removed by the U.S troops and NATO in 2001
 Korengal insurgency The inhabitants of the Korengal Valley
in Kunar are not Pashtuns as the rest of the population of
Kunar they speak their own language and share some ethnic
ties with the Nuristanies. The Korengals are the business
competitors of the majority of Pushtun in the timber trade.

12. RESULTS
 Terrorist organizations smuggle timber in exchange for
weapons and for killing U.S. soldiers.
 The timber finds its way to the global market including
the U.S market.

13. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE MINISTRY OF
AGRICULTURE AND
Short-Term: Recommendation including:
 Operating on the local level
 Design reaching out activities
 Activate Traditional Community-Based Bodies

14. CONSUL
An important decision making body known as a Consul—
where the village mullah and male elders would select a
village Arbab (in Dari) or Malik (in Pashto) to make key
community decisions and resolve disputes.

15. FARKHAR IN TAKHAR PROVINCE
 Since 1979, the communities appointed a forest guard
and paid him in flower, rice, or meat.
 Although, the system was not perfect, Farkhar retains
one of the last stands of the wild pistachios in the
province.
 In 2002 Farkhar harvested 40 tons of pistachio nuts for a
profit of US$25,000 while the ravage wage in Farkhar is
less than US$1 per day

16. INTERMEDIATE TERM
Participatory Forest Assessments and Forest Management
Plans:
 The correct legal description of the forest land
 Ownership: identify the owner, government or private
individuals, of the timber forest.
 Development of Five to Seven Year Forest Management
Plans

17. LONG-TERM: RECOMMENDATION
Management and Sustainability:
 Timber Association which includes members of the
community-based bodies who were previously trained
during the short and intermediate terms.