Mountain Resilience: Torrent Catchment Restoration in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan

This document reports on a UNEP and Aga Khan Foundation demonstration project (2019–2021) applying ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction in the Deh-shahr mountain torrent catchment (about 60 km²; roughly 3,000 residents) in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, where floods, landslides, and drought threaten livelihoods. It outlines the project’s context, stakeholder partnerships, and a community-led planning process using workshops, a Community-Based Natural Resource Management Committee, farmer field schools, and participatory three-dimensional modelling to identify hazard hotspots. It then describes linked interventions across upper, middle, and lower catchments, including rangeland protection, terracing and contour bunds, gully plugs, reforestation and woodlots, irrigation canal rehabilitation, a flood protection dyke, and household solar water heaters, and summarizes reported reductions in hazard impacts, exposure, and vulnerabilities.