Out With War and In With Nature: Supporting Climate Resilience and sustainable livelihoods through mine clearance in Afghanistan

art by Ed Oner (Morocco)

Ayub Alavi (formerly at United Nations Environment Programme); Linsey Cottrell (Conflict and Environment Observatory); Dr. Sarah Njeri (Humanitarian Policy Group at ODI); Dr. Peter Whitbread-Abrutat (Future Terrains)

Nature-based solutions in mine action areas can help to sustain peace, ensure sustainable livelihoods, and build communities’ climate resilience.

Context

In 2020, roughly 1,593 square kilometers of land in Afghanistan contained anti-personnel mines, improvised mines, and other explosive remnants of war (ERW), with almost every province affected.[i] Humanitarian mine action (HMA), which includes clearing mines and ERW, is critical to communities’ safe access to land and natural resources.

It is essential to undertake HMA in a manner that does not cause adverse environmental impacts, and then to support local communities with resources on how to use cleared land in a sustainable way. For example, tree cover and forests provide multiple benefits, but it is estimated that in the east of Afghanistan — which includes Afghanistan’s Eastern Forest Complex — between 50% to 80% of tree cover was lost between 1977 and 2002.[ii]

A Nature-based Solution (NbS) approach can redress unsustainable land use of recently cleared land. Such an approach covers an umbrella of measures that benefit both people and the environment, such as improved farming and grazing practices, forest management, afforestation, reforestation, grassland protection, and groundwater recharge.[iii] An approach that aligns HMA with well-designed NbS can protect and restore ecosystems, whilst also supporting livelihoods and helping communities adapt to climate change. Without this aligned approach, there are increased risks of a rapid deterioration of already marginal land and the related peace and security implications if livelihoods cannot be supported.

What’s been done

There are strong synergies between NbS and mine action programmes - both work to empower local communities and secure sustainable livelihoods.[iv] In Afghanistan, access to water is a critical factor and the incorporation of NbS into HMA programmes must be thoughtfully designed and implemented, with full engagement and consent across local communities.[v] HMA actors working in explosive ordnance risk education, community liaison, and clearance activities, can help identify local priorities and communicate these to others.[vi]

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the estimated shortfall in HMA funding was US$1 billion, a shortfall that will likely increase in future. Projects can appeal to donors by promising, and delivering, the multiple social and environmental benefits of the type that linked HMA with NbS initiatives can provide.

Between 2017 and 2019, HMA actors undertook ERW clearance in Afghanistan’s Eastern Forest Complex (EFC), providing safe access to forests, grazing and land suitable for farming. Embedding a sustainable, post-clearance land use policy will enhance HMA programmes such as this. From the onset, partnerships between HMA, environmental authorities, organizations, and local groups experienced in participatory NbS can facilitate an improved approach. For the EFC, a NbS initiative would work with local communities to reduce deforestation rates; improve local capabilities to protect remaining forest and wildlife; accelerate restoration of natural forests; provide sustainable livelihoods; support community cohesion through collaborative ventures; and boost climate resilience.

Looking ahead

NbS and HMA share common challenges such as participation, governance, balancing environmental and socio-economic needs, and overall project facilitation.[vii] The 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has impacted all humanitarian, environmental, and development projects but the need for projects that support livelihoods, biodiversity, and climate resilience is undiminished.

NbS programmes are context specific, reflecting the unique environmental setting and challenges, culture, and socio-economic needs of local people. A framework for NbS adoption in HMA would require the following key actions, with NbS allocated as a specific funding and project design component of HMA:

●        Map current NbS initiatives and opportunities against regions with HMA programmes, then explore collaborative approaches and identify potential partnerships;

●        Use pilot-scale projects to demonstrate NbS success, ensuring that the potential environmental, socio-economic and cultural impacts of the initiative are well understood, monitored and communicated.

●        Follow the IUCN Global Standard for NbS criteria,[viii] and use NbS as a stimulus for other socio-economic benefits such as education and training.

●        Secure trust between local people and external parties through early and meaningful engagement, ensuring that the needs and structure of local communities are understood and met. This includes advocating to the new regime the benefits of linking NbS and HMA programmes.

●        Incorporate succession planning and funding to ensure the NbS initiative is sustained over time.

Information useful to others must be disseminated to encourage adoption elsewhere. This will also help inform funders/decision-makers, especially where donors have supported traditional HMA.

National natural resource management strategies must reflect the opportunity to coordinate mine action with the adoption of NbS. A database of land-use outcomes for land previously released back to communities could help identify other NbS opportunities. HMA provides measurable benefits for communities and can be strengthened by also helping communities adapt to climate change.

Footnotes

[i] MAPA (2020) Mine Action Programme of Afghanistan Quarterly update, October – December 2020, (https://dmac.gov.af/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Fast-Fact-for-3rd-Qrtr-1399-October-December-2020.pdf)

[ii] FAO (2010) Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010, Country Reports – Afghanistan. Forestry Department. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (http://www.fao.org/3/al437E/al437E.pdf)

[iii] IUCN (2016) Nature-based solutions to address global societal challenges. International Union for Conservation of Nature (https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/46191)

[iv] CEOBS (2020) Mine action land release policies should promote nature-based solutions, Conflict and Environment Observatory (https://ceobs.org/mine-action-land-release-policies-should-promote-nature-based-solutions/)

[v] Seddon, N., Smith A., Smith P. et al. (2020) ‘Getting the message right on nature-based solutions to climate change’, Glob Change Biol. 27:1518–1546. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15513

[vi]GICHD (2014) A Mine Action Guide, Fifth Edition. Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining. (https://www.gichd.org/fileadmin/GICHD-resources/rec-documents/Guide-to-mine-action-2014.pdf)

[vii] Whitbread-Abrutat, P., Kendle, A. and Coppin, N. (2013) ‘Lessons for the mining industry from non-mining landscape restoration experiences’, Proceedings of the Eighth International Seminar on Mine Closure, Australian Centre for Geomechanics: Cornwall, 625-639. (https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_rep/1352_52_Whitbread-Abrutat)

[viii] IUCN (2020) Global standard for nature-based solutions. International Union for Conservation of Nature.  (https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2020-020-En.pdf)