Afghanistan

LOCATED IN CENTRAL Asia, with no maritime borders, Afghanistan covers a land area of 251,772 sq. mi. (647,500 sq. km.) and has a population of 31,889,923. It has a population density of 119 people per sq. mi. (46 per sq. km.). About 12 percent of the country is arable land, with 46 percent of the land area being used as meadow or pasture. Only three percent of the country is forested. Officially some 80 percent of the population make a living from agriculture.

At war since the late 1970s, there are numerous environmental problems facing Afghanistan, especially involving unexploded ordnance and a poor infrastructure. Parts of Afghanistan have faced severe shortages of food, alleviated by foreign aid, initially from the Soviet Union, later from parts of ...