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Nearly three years after the ousting of the Taliban from Kabul and two and a half years after our first involvement in assisting the Kabul Zoo, approximately half the Zoo’s major structures have been restored and in most cases improved and enlarged.
Initial work was focused on emergency needs, primarily the day to day feeding and care of the animals and then provision of basic services, particularly water and power. After that the focus was on reconstructing animal facilities largely to take the existing Zoo animal residents while discouraging the Afghan authorities from obtaining more animals until they were able to take the facility over and run it fully. Unfortunately a Chinese Safari Park offered and sent a number of ‘replacement’ animals, which meant that we also had to make provision in our plans to house and feed them as well. For the first two years of our involvement, we, with the help of the Mayhew Animal Home based in the UK and who have long associations with Kabul, paid for all the animal food and about half the staff salaries. However, it was made clear to the Municipality that as our resources were used and their gate admission income increased, they should take on this basic responsibility.
While almost all the construction work that we have prioritized and committed to has been completed, we remain concerned that the authorities are not providing adequate resources for the day to day running of the facility, although we know that the income from the gate is probably more than adequate to cope with this.
In addition, the skills level of the staff, with the exception of the Education Officer who we recruited about a year ago, are relatively low and we have been focusing attention in recent months on obtaining training through colleagues in the Indian subcontinent for both the Director, Mr. Shahnouri and the head of Education, Mr. Fazil. The logistics of getting them in and out of the country to Pakistan and India would make a novel in its own right.
Recently, The International Crane Foundation, largely because of the importance of Afghanistan as a migratory corridor for wild cranes flying between the former Soviet Union and the Indian subcontinent, have funded a wetlands exhibit at the Zoo and have effectively joined us in this partnership.
It is essential now that we use our remaining resources to help move the Municipality and the Zoo and its staff into a position where they are able to manage the facility into the long term. With that in mind, we, and our colleagues at the Zoological Society of London, principally Senior Curator Nick Lindsay who have been assisting in this whole process, are using our network of contacts in Kabul, particularly the Western European embassies, the U.S. military and others to try to get further interest in providing long-term monitoring and technical assistance.
We know that the new education program is working well and that has important long-term implications for the attitude of children living in and around Kabul. We would like to see at least a two-year appointment, probably from Pakistan or India (someone with extensive Zoo experience in a well-run facility) seconded to Kabul to help in on-the-ground training and supervision in day to day animal care and to advise on the handling and care of the grounds and the visitors. That is under discussion currently.
Many people have asked the question as to whether we shouldn’t have a European or American member of staff in residence there. The answer is a guarded ‘yes’ in the sense that that would clearly be useful for a limited period of time. However, the costs of maintaining such an individual in that situation are phenomenal, probably in excess of $100,000 a year. Language would be an ongoing problem and the main difficulty (which is why I am guarded) is that this culture of reliance on Aid Agencies and others needs to be broken if they are ever going to run facilities like this on their own.
We would much rather see people from nearby countries, with similar cultures, take on this training and supervisory role at the Zoo itself while we continue using our contacts, to help persuade the Municipality of their responsibility to maintain the Institution properly. We are encouraging them to form an advisory or even new governance body with representation from the local University system and the scientific, agricultural and environmental community, such as it exists.
Unfortunately, previous political history, where different government departments regularly compete for resources and power have made that type of partnership difficult. One only needs to have a basic understanding of previous Afghan politics and tribal interactions to understand how that converts into the more local politics of Kabul.
Fortunately, there is a very active South Asian Zoo organization, led, interestingly, by an ex-North Carolina native, Sally Walker, who has been resident in India for over thirty years. We feel that the best hope of a sound long-term facility at the Kabul Zoo probably rests to a degree with this organization and indeed they are keen to take on that role. In addition, we have encouraged authorities to see the Zoo as a potential center in the country for the wider environmental, wildlife and education debate and even as a possible headquarters for that. There is now a range of wildlife and environmental projects underway in Afghanistan run by a variety of external agencies, particularly our Fish and Wildlife Service, European governments and others receiving UN support. All of these are being encouraged to consider the Zoo and the Zoo site a potential focal point for this work.
From long personal experience of dealing with institutions in developing countries, particularly in Africa and Asia, these projects simplistically fall into three distinct phases.
Indeed, the Zoo currently is the only functioning biological facility anywhere in the country, despite the challenges we and they face.
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