NAIROBI -- Afghanistan's Enviroment Minister Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani on Thursday urged the international community to help reverse environmental devastation caused by decades of war and drought.

"We cannot do without UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the international community if we are to protect our environment, as most of our experts are dead due to the long drawn-out conflict," Nuristani said in Nairobi.

"We, therefore, need the capacity in expert training," Nuristani told journalists on the sidelines of the UNEP's 22nd Governing Council Conference.

"The environment has not been a priority in Afghanistan for the last two decades, because of war and drought," he pointed out.

"A combination of plunder by warlords, deforestation, inappropriate disposal of toxic wastes, an overwhelming migration of refugees and uncontrolled ground water extraction, ruined Afghanistan's environment," Nuristani said.

"We need help in all aspects of the environment, particularly strengthening our institutions that manage it," he said, explaining that his government had held talks with donors and multinational development banks on issues of economy, reconstruction and growth.

"Environmentally sound development of Afghanistan is not a luxury, but an essential pre-requisite and precondition for improving the living condition of the Afghan people and for avoiding environmental conflicts and disasters," he said.

"The warlords did not let rivers flow to dams and diverted water to top commanders, neglecting other areas, thereby becoming generally responsible for a great deal of environmental degradation," Nuristani pointed out.

Last year, Western forces led by the United States invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the hardline Taleban regime they accused of harboring terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and then installed a multi-ethnic transitional government to oversee the country's reconstruction.

"Afghanistan has lost most of its wetlands, different species of flora and fauna and tons of timber," said a report compiled by UNEP and Afghan environmental experts presented to the UNEP session on Thursday.

Nuristani also said that unexploded ordnance left behind by the ousted Talebans have contributed to the pollution of soil.

UNEP's Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said the restoration of proper leadership in Afghanistan gives a historic opportunity to create environmental laws, policies and build capacity for sustainable management of natural resources. (AFP)