Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghan farmlands viewed from a caves at the Afghan farmlands viewed from a caves at the
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This article has been reviewed by the following Topic Editor: Peter Saundry

Afghanistan is a landlocked nation of nearly 30 million people in southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan and east of Iran.

Afghanistan's terrain is about 75% mountains. The Hindu Kush mountains, considered an extension of the Himalayas, generally run northeast to southwest and divide the northern provinces from the rest of the country, with plains in the north and southwest. The highest peaks are in the northern Vakhan (Wakhan Corridor). 49% of the country is over 2,000 m (6,650 feet) in altitude.

Afghanistan has limited natural freshwater resources and inadequate supplies of potable water.

Its other environmental problems include:

  • soil degradation;
  • overgrazing;
  • deforestation (much of the remaining forests are being cut down for fuel and building materials);
  • desertification; and,
  • air and water pollution.

It is susceptible to damaging earthquakes which occur in Hindu Kush mountains, flooding and droughts.

Ahmad Shah Durrani unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian Empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919.

A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels.

A series of subsequent civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and anarchy.

Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama Bin Ladin. The UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001 established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution, a presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in 2005.

In December 2004, Hamid Kaarzai became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan and the National Assembly was inaugurated the following December. Karzai was re-elected in August 2009 for a second term.

Despite gains toward building a stable central government, a resurgent Taliban and continuing provincial instability - particularly in the south and the east - remain serious challenges for the Afghan Government.

Geography

Location: Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran

Geographic Coordinates: 33 00 N, 65 00 E

Area: 652,230 sq km

Land Boundaries: 5,529 km (China 76 km, Iran 936 km, Pakistan 2,430 km, Tajikistan 1,206 km, Turkmenistan 744 km, Uzbekistan 137 km)

Natural Hazards: damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains; flooding; droughts

Terrain:  mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest.  The highest point is Noshak (7,485 m) and the lowest point is Amu Darya (258 m).

Climate: arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers.

Topography of Afghanistan. Source: Wikimedia Commons

 

Ecology and Biodiversity

Source: World Wildlife Fund

See:

  1. Registan-North Pakistan sandy desert
  2. Baluchistan xeric woodlands
  3. Sulaiman Range alpine meadows
  4. Central Afghan Mountains xeric woodlands
  5. East Afghan montane conifer forests
  6. Ghorat-Hazarajat alpine meadow
  7. Afghan Mountains semi-desert
  8. Paropamisus xeric woodlands
  9. Badkhiz-Karabil semi-desert
  10. Northwestern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows
  11. Hindu Kush alpine meadow
  12. Karakoram-West Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe

See also: Biological diversity in the mountains of Central Asia

Government

Government Type: Islamic republic

Capital: Kabul (population: 3.573 million  est. 2009)

Administrative Divisions: 34 provinces (welayat, singular - welayat):

  1. Badakhshan
  2. Badghis
  3. Baghlan
  4. Balkh
  5. Bamyan
  6. Daykundi
  7. Farah
  8. Faryab
  9. Ghazni
  10. Ghor
  11. Helmand
  12. Herat
  13. Jowzjan
  14. Kabul
  15. Kandahar
  16. Kapisa
  17. Khost
  1. Konar
  2. Kunduz
  3. Laghman
  4. Logar
  5. Nangarhar
  6. Nimruz
  7. Nurestan
  8. Oruzgan
  9. Paktia
  10. Paktika
  11. Panjshir
  12. Parvan
  13. Samangan
  14. Sare Pol
  15. Takhar
  16. Wardak
  17. Zabol

Source: Wikimedia Commons Source: Wikimedia Commons

 

Independence Date: 19 August 1919 (from UK control over Afghan foreign affairs)

Legal System: mixed legal system of civil, customary, and Islamic law. Afghanistan has not submitted an International Court of Justice (ICJ) jurisdiction declaration but accepts International Criminal Court (ICCt) jurisdiction

International Environmental Agreements

Afghanistan is party to international agreements on Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Marine Dumping, and Ozone Layer Protection.

Afghanistan has signed, but not ratified, international environmental agreements on: Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation

People and Society

Band-e-Amir in Bamyan Province is Afghanistan's first national park; it consists of six spectacular turquoise lakes separated by natural dams of travertine.
View of the shell of the "Large Buddha" and surrounding caves in Bamyan. The Buddha statue in this cave as well as in another - both dating to the sixth century A.D. - were frequently visited and described over the centuries by travelers on the Silk Road. Both statues were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
For more than 3,000 years, Kabul has occupied a strategic location along Central and Southern Asian trade routes. In the late eighteenth century, Kabul was established as Afghanistan's capital. In this false-color satellite image vegetation appears fluorescent green, urban areas range in color from gray to black, and bare ground varies in color from beige to reddish brown. A mountain range, including Kohi Asamayi and Kohi Bini Hisar, snakes through the scene, running roughly northwest-southeast. More peaks appear in the northeast, right next to an airport. Urbanization appears densest at the city's center, just southwest of the airport, and it stretches out toward the right side of the image along an east-west highway. Leaping a mountain boundary, cityscape also fills the lower-left quadrant of the image. Partly constrained by surrounding mountains, Kabul's primary direction for growth has been vertical, with multistory buildings constructed atop existing structures. Photo courtesy of NASA.
View from Shahr-i-Zohok (the "Red City") in Bamyan Province. Once a citadel housing about 3,000 people, it was destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century. The invaders also leveled the nearby city that the fortress had protected and massacred all its inhabitants (possibly 150,000) and animals. In memory, the site is today known as Shahr-i-Gholghola (the "City of Screams").
Clothing, jewelry, sculptures, and handicrafts on display at a bazaar in Kabul.

Population: 29,835,392 (July 2011 est.)

Ethnic Groups: Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, other 4%

Religions: Sunni Muslim 80%, Shia Muslim 19%, other 1%

Age Structure:

0-14 years: 42.3% (male 6,464,070/female 6,149,468)
15-64 years: 55.3% (male 8,460,486/female 8,031,968)
65 years and over: 2.4% (male 349,349/female 380,051) (2011 est.)

Population Growth Rate: 2.375% (2011 est.)

Birthrate: 37.83 births/1,000 population (2011 est.)

Death Rate: 17.39 deaths/1,000 population (July 2011 est.)

Net Migration Rate: 3.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2011 est.)

Life Expectancy at Birth: 45.02 years

Total Fertility Rate: 5.39 children born/woman (2011 est.)

Languages: Afghan Persian or Dari (official) 50%, Pashto (official) 35%, Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%, much bilingualism

Literacy (age 15 and over can read and write): 28.1%

Urbanization: 23% of total population (2010) growing at an annual rate of change of 4.7%  (2010-15 est.)

Water

Total Renewable Water Resources: 65 cu km (1997)

Freshwater Withdrawal: 23.26 cu km/yr (2% domestic, 0% industrial, 98% agricultural):

Per capita freshwater withdrawal: : 779 cu m/yr (2000)

Access to improved sources of drinking water: 48% of population (2008)

Access to improved sanitation facilities: 37% of population (2008)

Agriculture

Agricultural products: opium, wheat, fruits, nuts; wool, mutton, sheepskins, lambskins

Irrigated Land: 31,990 sq km (2008)

Resources

Natural Resources: natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones.

Land Use:

arable land: 12.13%
permanent crops: 0.21%
other: 87.66% (2005)

Economy

Afghanistan's economy is recovering from decades of conflict. The economy has improved significantly since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 largely because of the infusion of international assistance, the recovery of the agricultural sector, and service sector growth.

Despite the progress of the past few years, Afghanistan is extremely poor, landlocked, and highly dependent on foreign aid, agriculture, and trade with neighboring countries. Much of the population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs.

Criminality, insecurity, weak governance, and the Afghan Government's inability to extend rule of law to all parts of the country pose challenges to future economic growth.

Afghanistan's living standards are among the lowest in the world.

While the international community remains committed to Afghanistan's development, pledging over $67 billion at four donors' conferences since 2002, the Government of Afghanistan will need to overcome a number of challenges, including low revenue collection, anemic job creation, high levels of corruption, weak government capacity, and poor public infrastructure.

GDP: (Purchasing Power Parity): $27.36 billion (2010 est.)

GDP: (Official Exchange Rate): $15.61 billion (2010 est.)

GDP- per capita (PPP): $900 (2010 est.)

GDP- composition by sector:

agriculture: 31.6%
industry: 26.3%
services: 42.1%
note: data exclude opium production (2008 est.)

Industries: small-scale production of textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, apparel, food-products, non-alcoholic beverages, mineral water, cement; handwoven carpets; natural gas, coal, copper

Currency: Afghanis (AFA)

Hues of green and orange highlight the extreme ruggedness of the mountainous terrain shown in this false-color satellite image of eastern Afghanistan, near its border with Pakistan. The dark green areas on the right side along rivers indicate agricultural areas. Snow-fed streams allow sufficient irrigation to transform relatively arid soils into productive fields. Image courtesy of USGS.

Further Reading

 

Citation

Central Intelligence Agency, World Wildlife Fund, National Aeronautics and Space Administra (Lead Author);CIA World Factbook (Content Source);Peter Saundry (Topic Editor) "Afghanistan". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth January 12, 2009; Last revised Date January 29, 2012; Retrieved February 9, 2012 <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Afghanistan>

The Authors

Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency was created in 1947 with the signing of the National Security Act by President Harry S. Truman. The act also created a Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to serve as head of the United States intelligence community; act as the principal adviser to the President for intelligence matters related to the national security; and serve as head of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 amended the National Securit ... (Full Bio)

World Wildlife FundKnown worldwide by its panda logo, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) leads international efforts to protect endangered species and their habitats. Now in its fifth decade, WWF works in more than 100 countries around the globe to conserve the diversity of life on Earth. With nearly 1.2 million members in the U.S. and another 4 million worldwide, WWF is the world's largest privately financed conservation organization. WWF directs its conservation efforts toward three global goals: 1) saving endangered ... (Full Bio)

National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationPresident Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958, partially in response to the Soviet Union's launch of the first artificial satellite. NASA grew out of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, which had been researching flight technology for more than 40 years. Today, NASA conducts its work in four principle organizations, called mission directorates: Aeronautics: pioneering and proving new flight technologies that improve our ab ... (Full Bio)

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