The total area of
the 13 provinces is about 19 million ha (24% of the country total). It is
estimated that in these provinces, 70 MCs
will cover an area of about
650,000 ha out of which 250,000 ha will be the physical implementation area.
Erosion (both sheet and gully) in
forest, range and agricultural land, land degradation and soil and water
pollution are important problems in the project area