| Afghan woodland ravaged by border traders Pajhwok Afghan News
11/20/2004
By Ezatullah Zawab
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JALALABAD – Sayed Fazl Akbar, the Governor of Kunar province, in eastern Afghanistan said "military officials" were at the center of a timber smuggling racket destroying one of Afghanistan's environmental treasures. Although he was not willing to expand on who he meant by military officials, he said:
"Armed officials in Kunar are responsible for the smuggling." The comments were made by Mr Akbar, in a Nangahar provincial daily newspaper in response to a letter written by tribal leaders of Kunar, in which they accuse the provincial officials of smuggling timber from Kunar forest. But Governor Akbar said the Kunar provincial police did not have the capacity or the manpower to control and curb the timber cutting and smuggling. "The monitoring and controlling of illegal logging is not one of our department's responsibilities, but the responsibility of the central government." "The newly elected government of Karzai should deploy national troops to deal with this problem," he added. Earlier, the Governor of Kunar had requested the dismissal of the thieves. "I asked Karzai's central government at a seminar in Kabul to fire the involved people, but it hasn’t dealt with the issue so far," Mr Akbar said. Akbar said he went a step further and asked the international coalition forces to seize and confiscate the timber which was illegally cut, but has not received a response from the forces yet. The provincial forestry department shares great concern about the destruction of their forests but feel powerless to control the crime. According to the interior ministry logging is illegal without a permit, but environmental experts say there is an organized network involving local villagers and traders working closely to get the timber to the relevant buyer. Some experts believe the bulk of the timber cut in the forests of Kunar ends up in Pakistan. Tribal elders estimate around 750 truck loads of timber are transported illegally to the Pakistani border every month. Each truck driver is charged a "private tax" or a bribe worth more than US $ 2,000. The elders speaking on behalf of the people of Kunar province have written to Karzai's government requesting an order preventing further destruction of their forests. But, they also ask that the illegally cut timber be used in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. But some local people have accused the governor of involvement in the illegal timber trading. "The governor clearly has a hand in the wood smuggling and he has appointed his close relatives in key positions to carry out the illegal jobs," a resident of Kunar wishing to remain anonymous said. The Kunar Forest that gives the province its name is the largest woodland in the border territory, but other forests in the region have also been affected by illegal logging. Elsewhere in the country, the timber thieves are at work in the border provinces of Paktia, Ghor and the beautiful Speen Ghar (White Mountains) of Nangarhar. The new constitution adopted last January by Afghan loya jirga delegates makes the government responsible for protecting forests and environment.
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