In Afghanistan, Americans are working with the government in Kabul to create something that has never existed before in this war-ravaged country: a national park.

But there are problems in the effort to create a national park. Animal droppings are everywhere. Discarded plastic bags flutter about in the wind. Empty bottles also litter the area.

Sayed Hussein runs a flour mill built three generations ago next to some waterfalls at one of the lakes.

Like many other villagers, the 60-year-old is nervous about the proposed park. To him and many others across Afghanistan, conserving natural resources is a foreign concept. Natural resources are what they depend on to survive.

Peter Smallwood, country director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, says the aim is for the park to be a homegrown one. It is to be a national landmark that benefits residents and tourists.

American proponents of the park say those decisions must come from the Afghans themselves.