About
The problems and pollution of the environment and the diseases caused by it make human life face threats and challenges all over the world every day and every year tens of thousands of people; they lose their lives. If people do not stop the factors of increasing environmental pollution and do not act based on the principles of sustainable development, it will have very dangerous consequences.
For this reason, the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan established a department called "Environmental Protection and Disaster Management" in the frame of the Faculty of Geology in 2009 based on the necessity and needs of the scientific community and market. This department was recognized as the first department of environmental protection and disaster management in Afghanistan. Later, according to the needs of society, considering the development plan of Kabul University and also making various academic fields special; the professors of the department, in cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education, proposed an independent Faculty of Environment.
In April 2013, the Faculty of Environment (FEN) was established to train young professionals capable of tackling and managing Environment, and various disasters, and natural resources related challenges facing Afghanistan. The FEN was established independently based on academic, society and market needs. FEN replaced the Department of Environmental Protection and Disaster Management was worked under the Geoscience Faculty. The FEN has three departments: Environmental Sciences (ES), Natural Resources Management (NRM), and Disaster Management (DM). In 2013, the MoHE approved the three departments as faculty level bachelor degree programs.
The Faculty of the Environment (FEN) at Kabul University is the first environmental science degree-granting program in public higher education in Afghanistan. Established in 2013, the FEN offers Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degrees in three disciplines, Environmental Science, Disaster Management and Natural Resources Management. UN Environment Program (UNEP) created the Environment Curriculum opportunities to provide technical inputs into curricula assessment and pedagogy and to facilitate coordination amongst universities and the environmental sector. In 2015, FEN established a partnership with UNEP to assist in the process of updating and contextualizing the curricula to align with Afghanistan’s environmental sectors and international standards. Through this collaboration, UNEP and FEN partnered with the University of Montana in the United States. The University of Montana was an ideal collaborator given its faculty experience working with a range of Central and South Asia partners in the sectors of environmental hazards and disasters, sustainable mountain development, water resources, and climate change.