Afghans Get First National Park
Afghanistan has established its first national park in a spectacular region of deep blue lakes near the Bamyan Valley.
Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) said the creation of the park would help the region attract international tourism and obtain World Heritage Status.
The area has traditionally been visited by Afghans and pilgrims and was to become Afghanistan's first national park in the 1960s. However, due to the instability of the Kabul government at the time, this did not happen. The lakes were a popular tourist destination before the Taliban's rule and officials hope to make it so again.
Parliament must now approve the legislation for the national park status to become permanent.
According to Mostapha Zaher, NEPA's Director-General "the park will draw people from Herat to Kabul to Jalalabad... to be inspired by the great beauty of Afghanistan's first national park, Band-e-Amir."
USAid, the US government's aid arm, is believed to have contributed US $1 million to help the lakes gain this provisional status and the Wildlife Conservation Society helped identify the park's boundaries.
