Address:
District# 10, Phase A Street # 8, Lane # 3, H # 271, Shaheed Ahmad Shah Massood High School Street,
Shar-e-Naw, ACSFo office Kabul-Afghanistan,
Introduction:
Environmental Assessment and Study Team (EAST) is a consortium of individual organizations
has enough experiences in environment and how to protect the ecosystems of Afghanistan.
EAST through its members based on their mission tries its best for training and assessment and
paves the ways for sound and healthy environment in Afghanistan.
EAST by the financial support of USAID has developed different training packages in order to do
awareness and train local community members, members from different governmental
departments, national and international NGOs, school teachers and children, private sectors,
farmers and members from the local community organizations. EAST also has a system to study
the ecosystems during major construction activities, the effects of the structures to the ecosystems
and the ecosystems to the structures, consequently to instruct all parties to minimize risks due to
the big construction plan and activities.
The members of EAST have more than, 20 years experiences with enough knowledge among the
local communities in the rehabilitation and development projects in all over Afghanistan.
Furthermore, EAST members are using Do No Harm concept in order to do not create any
problems during their intervention.
EAST members are the main members of the Coordination Bodies/ Networks related to
Afghanistan and participated in all conferences, workshops and forums about Afghanistan inside
and outside of the country.
Member organizations
– Afghan Civil Society Forum- Organization (ACSFo)
– Humanitarian Assistance and Facilitating Organization & Construction and
Production Company (HAFOcc),
– Afghan Health and Development Services (AHDS)
– Cooperation Center For Afghanistan (CCA)
– Work Friendly for Peace Organization (WFPO)
– Ghazni Rural Support Program (GRSP)
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WFP
Vision:
Sound and healthy eco-systems and environment in Afghanistan
Mission:
To contribute in environmental protection and to prevent environmental degradation in
Afghanistan by protecting the human-made and natural disasters in the whole ecosystems of
Afghanistan.
Goals:
1. To prevent and control degradation of lands, water, vegetation/green lands and air of the
whole ecosystems of Afghanistan.
2. To protect the biological diversity of unique ecosystems from natural and human-made
heritages and to pave the ways for them sound and safe ecosystems.
Values: we believe in:
1. Nature knows the best.
2. Careful and responsible management of natural resources
3. Protect biodiversity in all its forms.
4. Prevent pollution and abuse of the lands, air and fresh water.
5. Community empowerment for understanding the interdependence between human and
natural systems.
6. Heritage of a sound environment for future generation
7. From the nature for the nature.
Core strategies:
1. Advocacy and public awareness: play role in influencing at national-level environmental
decisions and in personal level environmental values and behaviors to inform and drive
environmental decisions for environmental protection. Protection of the environment is
needed due to various human activities:
1. Waste production
2. Air pollution
3. Loss of biodiversity
4. Loss of green lands and vegetation.
Priority interventions:
1.1. Environmental legislation: Establish an Afghan environment protection forum (AEPF).
1.2. Ethics: Raise awareness and understanding of the link between environment and
development to promote individual and community participation.
1.3. Education: Offer theoretical and practical courses, such as environmental studies,
environmental management and environmental engineering.
1.4 Structure::Form structures in order to control the systems of training and ways for
protection.
2. Waste management:
Contribute in proper waste management to reduce its effects on health, the environment and
aesthetics; while creating further job opportunities and income generating businesses.
Priority interventions: according to the waste hierarchy, the priority interventions will focus on:
1. Reduce: support the efforts to promote redesigning products and changing societal
patterns, concerning consumption and production of waste generation, to minimize
the amount of wastes produced in society and eliminate the generation of the harmful
and persistent wastes.
2. Reuse: to promote conventional reuse of the used item again for the same or different
functions, reuse offers quality products with limited means and while generation jobs
and business activity that contribute to the economy. Examples are refillable bottles,
returnable/reusable plastic boxes and paper shopping bags.
3. Recycle: Stimulate additional investment in recycling as a process to change wastes
into new products to prevent wastes of potentially useful materials, reduce the
consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from
incineration) and water pollution (from land filling) by reducing the need for
conventional waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to
plastic production. Recyclable materials include many kinds of glass, paper, metal,
plastic, textiles, and electronics. The composting or other reuse of biodegradable waste
such as food or garden waste is also considered for recycling. Materials to be recycled
are either brought to a collection center or picked up from the curbside, then sorted,
cleaned, and reprocessed into new materials bound for manufacturing.
3. Agro forestry:
Support the efforts to improve lands use management system that combines agricultural
and sequestration, and help to anthropogenic biodiversity.
Priority interventions:
a. Forestation and reforestation: To create forests, increase carbon capture and
sequestration, and help to anthropogenic biodiversity.
b. Sustainable agriculture: Promote the act of farming using principles of ecology
and the study of relationships between organisms and their environment.
Sustainable agriculture depends on replenishing the soil while minimizing the use
or need of non-renewable resources. It has been defined as “an integrated system
of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will
last over the long term”.
c. Water efficiency: to promote optimal water efficiency for crop irrigation;
minimizing losses due to evaporation, runoff or subsurface drainage while
maximizing production. Alternative irrigation systems like overhead irrigation, drip
irrigation, soaking hoses compacted soils, creating furrow dikes to prevent runoff,
and using soil moisture and rainfall sensors can maximize the efficiency of the
existing system.
4. Appropriate technology and risk control:
Offer Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and promote appropriate minimum
procedures and standards (in line with the ISO 14001 standard) that protect the
environment from degradations due to the pressures of population and technology.
Priority Interventions:
According to the waste hierarchy, our priority interventions will focus on:
a. Environmental impact assessments (EIA): EIA comprises three steps: risk
identification, risk estimation (the magnitude of the adverse effect associated with
outcome) and risk evaluation (the significance and acceptability of risks, and to
evaluate the alternative actions available).
b. Risk management: Finding ways to eliminate, reduce, mitigate or transfer the risks
to safeguard the life supporting capacity of the environment.
c. Appropriate technology: Promote technological choices and applications that are
small-scale, decentralized, labor-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally
sound, and locally controlled. Environmental technology includes green technology
(green-tech) and clean technology (clean-tech) is the application of one or more of
environmental science, green chemistry, environmental monitoring and electronic
devices to monitor, model and conserve the natural environment and resources, and
to curb the negative impacts of human involvement.
Outcomes:
1. Respectful relationships with stakeholders.
2. Strategies underpinned by effective knowledge management.
3. Promoted environmental conservation.
4. Community understanding of the environment protection benefits and rules.
5. Commitment to environmentally sustainable practices.
6. Community satisfaction with the environmental protection programs and
services.
7. Waste generation reduced
8. Recycling increased.
9. More waste diverted from landfill.
10. Problem of wastes managed better.
11. Illegal dumping reduced.
12. Water, air and lands protected from harmful pollution.
13. Impact on the community of offensive noise, odor and dust minimized.
14. Reduced risks from hazardous sources, including radiation, pesticides and
chemicals.
15. Contaminated lands restored for use by the community and business.
16. Reduced risks of impacts from native forestry operations on forest values.
17. Negative impacts on the environment and human health from coal seam gas
activities minimized.
18. Minimize environmental harm from incidents.
19. Sound and healthy environment provided to all population.
Contacts and Address
Esmatullah Haidary
Chairman-EAST
Contact #: +93(0)799566902
Eamil: esmathaidary@yahoo.com and east@acsf.af
Address:
District# 10, Phase A Street # 8, Lane # 3 H # 271, Shaheed Ahmad Shah Massood High School
Street, Shar-e-naw, ACSFo office Kabul-Afghanistan.
Secretary:
Tjarko Holtjer, Gele Rijders Plein 6, NL6811 AN. ARNHEM – + 31 6 44 3 77 3 28 – the
Netherlands
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