Environmental Conservation in Afghanistan

Stays in Saddam's Palace, yak rides and close encounters with wild cats are all in a days work for Dr. Alex Deghan.

A biologist lawyer with a bachelor's degree in political science and a PhD in evolutionary Biology, Deghan took his diverse educational background, packed his bags and did the unusual. He went to work in Iraq in January of 2004.

"It didn't hit me till the first time a giant missile went past me that I realized why everyone wanting the inside offices," said Dehgan.

Dehgan arrived in Iraq as Special Advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority for Non-Proliferation on behalf of the U.S. State Department. It was his job to recruit and motivate Iraqi scientists to rebuild war-ravaged Iraq in hopes of redirecting the country to more productive and less violent ends.

"You can't have redirection without a scientific community to redirect them," commented Dehgan.

Dehgan and his colleagues worked 17-hour days and spent their nights in former dictator Saddam Hussein's palace. With 2,000 people sleeping in the throne room, Dehgan recalled that much of the reason the days were so long was because the nights in Iraq were so uncomfortable.

The long days for Dehgan were devoted to the creation of the International Center for Science and Industry where he began programs to transition weapons scientists back to civil scientists.

Building from the ground up was a challenge Dehgan found himself faced with many times during his stay in Iraq.

"The problem was that there wasn't really a science sector to rebuild into."

As such, Dehgan and his crew used resources such as books, journals and articles from the United States to create a virtual library base for Iraqi scientists, a library that became the size equivalent to a top-tier U.S. University.

After working on the redirection of science in Iraq Dr. Dehgan turned his expertise and efforts toward another country torn apart from years of war and scientific degradation.

"You think about Afghanistan and what you think about is failed and failing states," he said.

With 30 years of conflict, a geography littered with landmines and 5.4 million refugees returning to the once vibrantly beautiful and nurtured land there was no limit of challenges that Dehgan faced when bringing science back into the lives of the Afghani people.
According to Dehgan, the people themselves were a major asset to overcoming the obstacles he faced.

"The people were really supportive of what we were trying to do they get it."

With a team of 80, Dehgan set out under the Wildlife Conservation Society to restore Afghanistan to its former natural beauty. A land once filled with incredible species of animal unlike any others in the world and once covered in lush lands has been scarred by gunfire, bombs and the desperation of a poverty-stricken people.

The animal life that was once a symbol of Afghani heritage are now names on an endangered species list.

Dehgan and his team were not ready to see that heritage turn to dust in a country that was once a major tourist destination.

"Wildlife provides an opportunity of reclaiming identity," he said.

Picking up scat samples from remote locations in Afghanistan and surveying land for animal life and geographical characteristics were initial efforts to understand the land they were trying to save. For Dehgan, the work extended far behind simply studying the environment of Afghanistan. He was there to restore it to its former glory, 30 years before the tanks and boots hit Afghani soil and environmental protection became a distant luxury.

Like his work in Iraq, Dehgan had to start from scratch when writing the countries environmental laws. He used examples from other countries laws to formulate a series of rules that he hopes will improve life in Afghanistan, not only for the wildlife but for the citizens as well.

According to Dehgan, the land is threatened by numerous factors. One of the greatest challenges is the overgrazing. Because land is a primary resource in Afghanistan, degradation of it could result in major setbacks.

"Overgrazing is not only a threat to the animals but to the people who are dependent [on the land]."

Disease, deforestation, and unregulated hunting and wildlife trade are all major issues for the health of the environment as well.

Because the poverty level is so high many people resort to hunting and selling furs of rare species. A major culprit of illegal fur trading was the U.S. military stationed in Afghanistan. Dehgan went to them first in his efforts to stop the killing of these now endangered or vulnerable species.

"We can tell the Afghans to buy illegal firms if we haven't cleaned up our house first."
Afghans, Dehgan said, have been very receptive to the idea of cleaning up their land and preserving it for the future but educating them on how to do so has been a major roadblock in insuring their ability to truly adapt to and live by the new environmental laws. The reason can be found in the incredibly low literacy rate that is current less than 50 percent of the country.

According to Dehgan and his team, it's not all about the animals, the land and the 80 percent of Afghani's dependent on the endangered natural resources. It's about the security of the land.

"You can build more roads and you can provide more guns and you can do a lot of great things but you are not actually going to achieve security unless you can secure [resources]."

Dehgan believes that there is a distinct correlation between bad environmental laws and practices and bad governments and as such believes that science can have profound power in diplomacy and aid in keeping citizens happy and governments accountable.

Through Dehgan's efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, doors of diplomacy have been opened between countries with seemingly little in common. Political squabbles that divide nations, dialects and language barriers that alienate people from one another and tension between struggling economies are able to give way to the one thing that all nations have in common: the language of science.

"Science provides and common language and a common culture," said Dehgan.

The organization is set to open Afghanistan's first official national park in the coming months and has plans to create a "Peace Park" on land that connects Afghanistan with four neighboring nations. Dehgan views this a primary example of how science and the environment can bring nations with political differences together.

"Countries that work together and play together are more likely to get along."