This National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for Afghanistan has been prepared by the National Environmental Protection Agency, with technical and advisory inputs from relevant government agencies, non-governmental organizations, international organizations and user groups at national and provincial levels. Its purpose is two-fold: firstly, to provide the Government of Afghanistan with a policy document that will be useful in guiding development of its future biodiversity conservation and management programming, and secondly for communicating biodiversity conservation priorities in Afghanistan to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (a requirement of all countries acceding to the Convention), to other government agencies in Afghanistan, and to Afghanistan’s development partners.