Environmental issues in Afghanistan are monitored by the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA). These issues predate the political turmoil of the past few decades. Forests have been depleted by centuries of grazing and farming, practices which have only increased with modern population growth.
In Afghanistan, environmental conservation and economic concerns are not at odds; with over 44% of the population dependent on herding or farming, welfare of the environment is critical to the economic welfare of the people. Environmental hazards cause about 26% of all deaths in the country.
Afghanistan has lost nearly half of its forests. About 2.8% of the country is believed to be forested, which amounts to nearly of the land. Though some believe it may be less than that, forests can be increased significantly by planting more trees. Felling is illegal in all provinces of Afghanistan. This is because as forest cover decrease, the land becomes less and less productive, threatening the livelihood of the rural population, and the floods are washing the agricultural lands and destroying the houses. Loss of vegetation also creates a higher risk of floods, which not only endanger the people, but cause soil erosion and decrease the amount of land available for agriculture. To reverse this destruction, Afghans seek to turn their land green again by planting millions of trees every spring, particularly on 10 March, which is recognized as national tree plantation day in the country.
Afghanistan has a Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 8.85/10, ranking it 15th globally out of 172 countries. Residents of the country have historically depended on forests for firewood and the revenue generated by export of pistachios and almonds, which grow in natural woodlands in the central and northern regions. The provinces of Badghis and Takhar have lost more than 50% of pistachio woodland.
Denser forests in the eastern Nangarhar, Kunar, Nuristan and other provinces are at risk from timber harvesting by timber mafia. Although the logging is illegal, profits from exporting the timber to neighboring Pakistan have been very high. The timber made its way not only to Peshawar but also to Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Lahore, where most of it has been used to make expensive furniture. The Afghan government has formed special park rangers to monitor and stop these activities.
Global Forest Watch publishes annual estimates of tree cover loss and 2000 tree cover extent derived from time-series analysis of Landsat satellite imagery in the Global Forest Change dataset. In this framework, tree cover refers to vegetation taller than 5 m (including natural forests and tree plantations), and tree cover loss is defined as the complete removal of tree cover canopy for a given year, regardless of cause.
For Afghanistan, country statistics report cumulative tree cover loss of from 2001 to 2024 (about 0.93% of its 2000 tree cover area). For tree cover density greater than 30%, country statistics report a 2000 tree cover extent of . The charts and table below display this data. In simple terms, the annual loss number is the area where tree cover disappeared in that year, and the extent number shows what remains of the 2000 tree cover baseline after subtracting cumulative loss. Forest regrowth is not included in the dataset.
Hunting is illegal in Afghanistan because much of the country's wildlife is at risk of being extinct. Exotic birds and wild animals continue to be smuggled out of the country. In 2014 around 5,000 birds were smuggled out of Afghanistan, which included falcons, hawks and geese. In 2006, Afghanistan and the Wildlife Conservation Society began a three-year project to protect wildlife and habitats in Band-e Amir National Park and Wakhan National Park.
Little is known about the status of the salamander Batrachuperus mustersi, which is found only in the Hindu Kush.
Most of Afghanistan's fresh water flow by fast-flowing rivers into neighboring countries. This benefits those countries but not Afghanistan. The primary threat to Afghanistan's water supply is the drought in parts of the country, which often creates food shortages and hunger. The resulting agricultural crises between 1995 and 2001 have driven many thousands of families from rural to urban areas.
In response to drought, deep wells for irrigation have been drilled which decreased the under ground water level, further draining groundwater resources, which rely on rain for replenishment. To fix these problems, more dams and reservoirs are being built all across the country.
Around 82% of Afghanistan's population has access to clean drinking water, with urban dwellers at 99%. Companies that provide drinking water to the public include Cristal, Alokozay, Noshaq, and others. Cristal is more expensive then the others but it is the cleanest and safest. Those that do not buy bottled drinking water rely on springs and mineral water from deep wells.
Between 1998 and 2003, about 99% of the Sistan wetlands were dry, another result of continued drought and lack of water management. The wetlands, an important habitat for breeding and migrant waterfowl including the dalmatian pelican and the marbled teal, have provided water for agricultural irrigation for at least 5,000 years. They are fed by the Helmand and Farah rivers, which ran at 98% below average in drought years between 2001 and 2003. As in other areas of the country, the loss of natural vegetation resulted in soil erosion; here, sandstorms submerged as many as 100 villages by 2003.
Some of the major water reservoirs and dams include the following:
Since 2021, nearly 7 million Afghan citizens that were residing in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey and other countries have returned to Afghanistan. Many of them settled in Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar, Khost, Mazar-i-Sharif and other Afghan cities.
Air pollution in Afghanistan's major cities is becoming a serious problem to public health. Residents of Kabul suffer the most from air pollution. Over 2,000 Kabul residents die from air pollution each year. One of the main reasons for this is the large number of old vehicles in the city. Nationally, an estimated 5,000 people die from air pollution. Old vehicles are also blamed for the air pollution in the other cities.
Due to the decades of wars since 1978, Afghanistan was left behind in building a modern sewage system. Only some wastewater treatments have been built recently, including for farming purposes. Most of Kabul's sewage is collected by trucks from septic tanks and then dumped at nearby agricultural lands. Some homes have all their plumbing connected directly to storm drains. The water and waste from there eventually run into nearby Kabul and Paghman rivers.
In 2008, the Afghan government stated that it was investigating allegation that Pakistan had dumped nuclear waste in southern Afghanistan during the Taliban rule in the late 1990s.