3. Country reports

3.1 Afghanistan

INTRODUCTION

Main Non-Wood Forest Products

The main non-wood forest products (NWFP) of Afghanistan are medicinal plants (Ferrula asafoetida, Cumin, Zizyphus vulgaris, Glycorrhiza spp.) and fruits (almonds, walnuts, pistachios and pine nuts).

Other NWFP include morels, gums and wild animals (e.g. birds).

General information

Plant life in Afghanistan is sparse but diverse. Common trees in the mountains are evergreens, oaks, poplars, wild hazelnuts, almonds, and pistachios. The plains of the north are largely dry, treeless steppes, and those of the south-western corner are nearly uninhabitable deserts. Common plants in the arid regions include camel thorn, locoweed, spiny restharrow, mimosa, and wormwood, a variety of sagebrush.

The annual value of NWFP exploited in Afghanistan is estimated to be about US$15 million for nuts and US$12 million for medicinal plants. Permits for exporting these items are issued by the Department of Forestry and Range and are an important source of revenue (Tandon, 1988).

PLANTS AND PLANT PRODUCTS

Food

Morels, or black mushrooms of the genus Morchella, are widely gathered by an army of men, women and children in the temperate forests of Afghanistan as well as Pakistan, India, and China and traded internationally in large quantities. Urban entrepreneurs buy them from local collectors and transport them in dried form to overseas markets, especially to Europe, where demand for them as gourmet or speciality foods consistently exceeds local or regional supplies, and prices are uniformly high.

Kernels of Chalghoza pine (Pinus gerardiana) constitute a popular dry fruit in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and many Middle Eastern countries. Chalghoza pine is a medium-sized tree, growing naturally at an elevation of 1 800 to 3 000 meters in the dry temperate forests of Afghanistan, Pak and India. Production varies from year to year, with good seed production cycles occurring every fifth year.

According to the National Progress Reports on Forestry, Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission (15^th Session, Colombo, Sri Lanka) production estimates for the years 1990, 1991 and 1992 were reported to be 868, 715 and 435 tonnes, respectively. The bulk of the production comes from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Walnuts are an important NWFP in China, India, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the walnut tree (Juglans regia) is an important broad-leaved associate of temperate coniferous forests. The tree is also widely cultivated. Based on the UNCTAD database, the total value of the world's trade in walnuts in 1992 was about US$331.238 million (0.03 percent from Afghanistan). EEC, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Austria and Hong Kong are the major markets (Iqbal, 1995).

Pistachio (Pistacia vera) is native of Iran, Afghanistan and central Asia from Turkmenia to Pamir-Alai and Tien Shan. Pistachio forests are distributed mainly in the Provinces of Heart, Badghis, Fariab, Balkh, Samangan, Jauzjan and Kunduz. Annual production of pistachio nuts is roughly between 1 500 and 2 000 tonnes (Chandrasekharan, 1981).

About 1 500 tones of pistachios are consumed annually in USA and is expected to reach 23 000 tones in the next decade. Pistachios are exported from California to Japan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Germany and United Kingdom. Other major exporting countries are Iran and Turkey, and to a lesser extent, Afghanistan.

Premium nuts made up 25 percent of the UK snack market in 1990 and were expected to reach 30 percent by 1995. Naturally occurs in the oak forests of Northern Syria, Turkey, Caucasus, Iran and Iraq. Introduced and widely naturalized in North Africa, Cyprus, Crete, southern Europe, Afghanistan, Kashmir, California, etc. (FAO, 1995).

Medicines

Liquorice (Glycorrhiza spp.), in addition to being used as an expectorant and anti-inflammatory, has a multitude of other uses ranging from flavouring for chocolate, beer, tobacco and toothpaste, and as a stabilizing agent for foam in fire extinguishers (Lewington, 1993). In 1992, the total value of international trade in liquorice was US$0.94 million, of which the bulk (55.1 percent) originated from China (24.1 percent), Pakistan 23.7 percent) and Afghanistan (7.3 percent). Outside the Asia-Pacific region, Syria, Russia and Turkey are the major producers (Iqbal, 1995).

Exudates

Gum tragacanth is an important commercial gum produced by several shrubby plants of the genus Astragalus, which grow from Pakistan to Greece, particularly in Iran and Turkey. The exudate is produced spontaneously on the bark of the shrub, but making an incision and driving wooden wedges into it often increase the yield.

Iran is the main producing country within the Asia-Pacific region. Small quantities are also produced in Afghanistan, but export consignments are very rare.

Asafoetida is the oleoresin exudate obtained from certain Ferula species, particularly F. assafoetida, which occur in Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran and surrounding areas. The product is one of the few examples (another one is tragacanth gum) of an exudate which is obtained by "tapping" the roots of a shrubby plant.

Just prior to the flowering stage, the plants are cut above the ground and the taproot/rhizome exposed. A small quantity of "latex" exudes and this is collected every few days.

According to the national statistics, Afghanistan was by far the largest supplier of F. assafoetida exudates to India, averaging 525 tones annually outside the peak year 1990/91, when 950 tones were exported (FAO, 1995).

ANIMALS AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS

The wild animals of Afghanistan include 123 mammal species, some of which are nearing extinction. The most seriously endangered are the goitered gazelle, leopard, snow leopard, markor goat, and Bactrian deer. Other wild animals of Afghanistan include Marco Polo sheep, urials, ibex, bears, wolves, foxes, hyenas, jackals, and mongooses. Wild boar, hedgehogs, shrews, hares, mouse hares, bats, and various rodents also occur. Some 460 bird species are found in Afghanistan, with more than 200 breeding there. Flamingo and other aquatic fowl breed in the lake areas south and east of Ghazni. Ducks and partridges are also common, but all birds are hunted widely and many are becoming uncommon, including the endangered Siberian crane. (Encarta, 2001)

REFERENCES

Chandrasekharan, C. 1988. Forests and Forestry in Afghanistan, FAO, Rome.

Enacarta Home. 2001. Afghanistan wild life. Internet: http://encarta.msn.com. viewed on 1 June 2001.

FAO. 1995a. Edible nuts. by G.E. Wickens. Non-wood forest products No. 5, Rome.

FAO. 1995b. Gums, resins and latexes of plant origin. by J.J.W. Coppen, Non-wood forest products No. 6, Rome.

Iqbal, M.1995. International Trade in Non-wood Forest Products in the Asia-Pacific Region. Beyond Timber: Social, Economic and Cultural Dimensions of Non-wood Forest Products in Asia and the Pacific. Proceedings of a Regional Expert Consultation, 28 November-December 1994. FAO/RAPA, Bangkok

Sarsam, A.A. 1990. Forestry in Afghanistan. Paper presented at Eleventh Session of the Forestry Commission of the Near East, Ankara, October, 1990

Tandon, J.C. 1988. Forest and Forestry in Afghanistan: Sector Review. FAO Project (AFG/86/011). Kabul.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This report has been realized in support to the FAO Forest Resource Assessment 2000. The content is mainly based on available information at FAO Headquarters in Rome and on information collected by Ms Sabra, American University of Beirut, Lebanon.

Additional information on NWFP in Afghanistan would be appreciated and duly acknowledged.

QUANTITATIVE DATA ON NWFP OF AFGHANISTAN

Importance: 1- high importance on the national level; 2 - high importance on the local/regional level; 3 - low importance

Part used: an - entire animal; ba - bark; bw - beeswax; le - leaves; nu - nuts; fi - fibres; fl - flowers; fr - fruits; gu - gums; ho - honey; la - latex; oi - oil; pl - entire plant; re - resins; ro - roots; sa - sap; se - seeds; st - stem; ta - tannins

Habitat: F - natural forest or other wooded lands; P - plantation; O - Others: Trees outside forests (e.g. agroforestry, homegardens)

Source: W - wild, C - cultivated

Destination: N - national; I - international