Better Land Stewardship to Avert Poverty and Land Degradation: A Viewpoint from Afghanistan

Abstract

This chapter attempts to demonstrate the nature of land degradation and represent its mutual relation with poverty in rural Afghanistan and tries to show how the notion of land stewardship could introduce new solutions to the issue. It explores the complexities and diversity which exist in natural resource utilization with more focus on rangeland-based agriculture and livestock raising. It shows how ‘Post-Taliban Afghanistan’ faces a wide range of complex issues including deep rural poverty and overexploited natural resources. Rural livelihoods and food security have been threatened by the degradation of the natural resource base. The land dispute is one of the most important and highly growing politicized issues in Afghanistan, it being across tribal lines and a major causative factor of local insecurity. The root causes of the problematical situation facing Afghanistan are outlined.