Warzone Conservation in Afghanistan: A Conversation with Alex Dehgan

Jan 16, 2019 | Wilson Center
Washington, DC
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Alex Dehgan arrived in postwar Afghanistan in 2006 with the mission of protecting Afghanistan’s distinctive yet threatened environment. An evolutionary biologist and lawyer working for the Wildlife Conservation Society, Dehgan’s efforts were central to the creation of the first Afghanistan National Park Program. In his book, The Snow Leopard Project: And Other Adventures in Warzone Conservation, Dehgan takes readers along with him and his team through some of the most dangerous places in postwar Afghanistan as they work to establish the country’s first national park, complete some of the first extensive wildlife surveys in thirty years, and act to stop the poaching of the country’s iconic endangered animals, including the snow leopard.

Dehgan continued to apply science to policy and practice challenges through subsequent positions at the Department of State, the Coalition Provisional Authority, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Dehgan now tackles conservation and biodiversity loss with the tools of innovation and technology as co-founder and CEO of Conservation X-Labs.

Please join the Wilson Center for a conversation with Alex Dehgan and Geoff Dabelko, Senior Advisor to the Environmental Change & Security Program. Dehgan will reflect on innovative approaches to protecting the environment and advancing security in some of the most politically and ecologically fragile places in the world, and the connections between conservation and political stability. His talk will also consider the larger changes of the political landscape and evolving US positions towards Afghanistan.

For more information and to register, please visit https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/warzone-conservation-afghanistan-conversation-alex-dehgan

Where: Washington, D.C.

When: 16 January 2019

Organizers: The Wilson Center