Amid war, Afghanistan declares a series of azure lakes its first national park

Afghanistan declares its first national park

KABUL — Violence-plagued Afghanistan on Wednesday named what is expected to be its first national park.

Coinciding with Earth Day, celebrated worldwide every year on April 22, officials in the Central Asian country signed a decree to make a series of six cascading azure-blue lakes Band-e-Amir National Park.

Located in the country’s central highlands, the mountain-fed lakes are held back by natural dams. The lakes were a popular tourist destination before the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule.

Wednesday’s signing makes Band-e-Amir a provisional national park, and the action still must be ratified by parliament.

“We know that the last 30 years have caused a lot of harm to our natural resources,” Agriculture Minister Mohammad Asif Rahimi said.

The hope is that the designation will help safeguard the area and attract potential tourists.

U.S. deputy ambassador Frank Ricciardone told a crowd of 200 people gathered for the signing, “You will draw visitors not only from all across Afghanistan, but all across the region and the world to visit you and your beautiful country.”

Bamyan province, where the lakes are located, has been relatively unaffected by the violence that plagues eastern and southern Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters and other militants control swathes of land and regularly clash with international and Afghan forces.