Afghanistan’s women contribute enormously to the management of the country’s natural resources, and therefore to sustaining both rural and urban livelihoods.
They fulfill several roles, from providing agricultural labour, cultivating fruit and rearing livestock, to collecting wood and maintaining the family unit through cooking, cleaning and child care.
Women – especially those living in rural areas like in the Koh-eBaba– often have a particularly deep understanding of local ecosystems stemming from daily practical experience. In this way, they have a vast knowledge about happenings in the environment and may be the first to notice any signs of declining health. This closeness to nature gives the women of the Koh-e-Baba an essential role to play in protecting their ecosystems and the many services they offer: from protecting biodiversity and habitats to supplying people with water, food, timber, fertile soils and a sustainable future.
Our first project the women are involved in is the Clean Cookstove and natural regeneration project. This was supported by the Embassy of Finland and we are now in phase two of the project. This project is a package of interventions aimed to help protect land degradation from fuel cutting and to potentially save lives. Tragically over 2 million people die every year due to smoke inhalation. Most of these are women and children. Therefore we have combined green energy products ( a clean cookstove, clean oven, solar water heater and briquette/efficient fuel maker) woodlot plantation and fruit tree plantation together with practical environmental education to give a means for these women to live better and take better care of their environment . On this platform of the Koh-e-Baba partnership COAM is building more locally appropriate initiatives to assist these women.
Download project summary sheet here PROJECT SUMMARY SHEET