Iraq Marshlands Restoration

[elusive]

very nice series by BBC Two entitled Miracle in the Marshes of Iraq...aired in 2011, everyone should watch it!

[Al-Hashimi]

Originally Posted by elusive

very nice series by BBC Two entitled Miracle in the Marshes of Iraq...aired in 2011, everyone should watch it!

FANTASTIC!

[Ali - Iraq]

Great and informative videos. Didn't know the marshes were so extensive. Will they be restored like before? Or is it impossible?

[BigDreamer]

video removed by user !! I want to see it now..

[elusive]

no way!! why? try and look it up BigD, i recommend it, really good show!

[Al-Hashimi]

Why did they remove it?

Here is a little clip of the documentary BigDreamer. Unfortunately I can't find the original full version on Youtube anywhere.

[sheytanElKebir]

copyright infringement?

[BigDreamer]

thanks alhashimi yea i cant find it on yt either

[Sinjar]

I remember we discussed it a bit time ago here

I can see the link there doesn't work either. :S (You can try to download the torrent though)

[Sinjar]

The founder of the project, Azzam Alwash, talks about the Marshes in TED:

[Virtuoso]

My father used to tell me how the marsh peoples used to go around selling their water buffalo milk and cream on fridays, such a shame what the ignorance of other people has done to their community. Hopefully some wrongs will be made right.

[Ali - Iraq]

Conservation knows no boundaries – as ties between Iraq and Norfolk show
Nature Iraq is repaying international support by donating to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust's appeal to buy land next to Cley Marshes
The Mesopotamian Marshes, a vast expanse of reeds and open water twice the size of Norfolk, are the largest wetland ecosystem in the Middle East and support a number of species of global conservation concern. The marshes hold the only breeding population of the globally endangered Basra reed warbler and the world's highest wintering numbers of the threatened marbled duck.

Now the marshes are under threat again, this time from the building of huge dams in Turkey on the Tigris and Euphrates, the rivers that feed and nourish a wetland complex so important for biodiversity as well as being the homelands of the Marsh Arabs, made famous by the writings of Wilfred Thesiger. The charity Nature Iraq is actively campaigning to influence the building and use of these giant structures that can have such a devastating effect for the lives of people and wildlife.

Another NI major activity has been surveying more than 220 sites throughout Iraq to identify the country's key areas for biodiversity. Often in difficult and very dangerous circumstance these surveys by young NI biologists have spanned seven years, summer and winter, and are the first step towards establishing a network of protected areas. This is wonderful conservation work from a country where the daily news is rarely uplifting. They have already produced their own bird field guide – in Arabic – the first Middle East country to do so.

But it's not just conservation in Iraq that is NI's motivation. It may surprise many that this NGO has just made a donation of $1,000 to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust's £1m appeal to purchase 143 acres of land next to Cley Marshes on England's North Norfolk coast. Nature Iraq has received much help from colleagues in the UK, especially through BirdLife International, and makes this donation as an act of global support for the protection of marshes everywhere.

Dr Azzam Alwash , the president of NI, who was instrumental in the programme of re-flooding the Mesopotamian Marshes after years of drainage under the Saddam regime and has stayed in Cley village during visits to England, explains the reasoning behind the donation: "Nature Iraq has received great support from international organisations for the conservation of our famous Mesopotamian Marshes. This small token to support the extension of Cley Marshes is to honour that support and show our brotherly care for the environment everywhere."Iraq's first bird book. Photograph: Richard Porter/Nature Iraq
He later tells me: "Wetlands are under attack worldwide and we need to draw parallels between the reedbeds of Cley and the marshes of Iraq. Those who are fighting the good fight need to help each other and learn from each other. Nature Iraq made the donation not only as a gesture of goodwill to wetland enthusiasts in the UK, but also in the hope of raising the profile of the marshes of Iraq within the community that loves wetlands, as we all need to work together to help pressure the Iraqi government, as well as the Turkish government and the Iranian government, to do the right thing and make sure that the marshes of Iraq survive the era of dam building and climate change."


Boat traffic in the Iraq marshes. Photograph: Omar Fadhil/Nature Iraq
On the newly acquired land, the Norfolk Wildlife Trust will create more reed beds, grazing marsh and freshwater for marsh harriers, bitterns, bearded tits, otters, water voles and avocets which live at Cley Marshes; for the countless thousands of migratory birds which use it; and for the 100,000 people who visit each year – and for whom a new centre is to be built – the Simon Aspinall Education Centre , after the Middle East naturalist who lived in Cley.

Encouraged by the NWT education endeavours and those of the RSPB, Nature Iraq is embarking on an exciting new programme to encourage Iraqi visitors to the Mesopotamian Marshes to witness the wonders of this national and global treasure. "If we can replicate some of the actions done by conservation bodies in Britain to make people appreciate wildlife, I will be a very happy man," Azzam said.

• This article was commissioned after a suggestion by Leopold1904. If there's a subject you'd like to see covered on Comment is free, please visit our You Tell Us page.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...k-cley-marshes

[sheytanElKebir]

http://forusa.org/blogs/mark-johnson...uphrates/11299

Chibashi, Iraq: This may be the simplest story in the world, gone wrong.

For six millennium, from the time of the Sumerians, the marshes of the Tigris and Euphrates have provided a complete livelihood to the tribes of the Shat al Arab. The natural hydrology of the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates has meant that the Tigris – flowing out of Turkey, across the entire length of the Iraqi desert – has slid across a six-meter incline to join the Euphrates until the two rivers become one on their way to the Gulf (Arabian or Persian depending upon your national inclination), forming a 9650-square-kilometer marshland (an area roughly the size of Lebanon).

The marshes produce reeds, which are used to build dwellings called motifs, cathedral-like, in as few as four days, on naturally occurring or manmade knolls throughout the marsh, collected into villages, or in small clusters of structures. Open structures hold water buffalo at night, who swim and wander through the marshes during the day. The reeds also provide mulch for the water buffalo, and the water buffalo provide milk as a staple. The marshes provide fish and a nutrient-rich muck for vegetables. The fish, broiled in racks standing at right angles to the coals, eaten with watercress and radish greens from the marshes, are another staple.

This fully sustainable ecosystem continued undisturbed for millennia, until the world of geopolitics exerted its influence followed by the emergent impact of climate change. In the early 1990s, Saddam Hussein determined the best way to take control of a vast area, in which dissident groups could hide, would be to drain the marshes. The process of destruction was a compounding of a long and gruesome conflict with Iran along the river borders, in which moving forces through the region would be simplified if the marshes were dry. Building a dike hundreds of kilometers long – serving to hold back the Euphrates from the confluence – was put in place. Then Turkey and northern Iraq began diverting the Tigris to other uses along its path and the flow dropped four-fold, so low that it could no long move along the incline to meet the Euphrates dike.

As the marshes dried up, evaporated, and disappeared, so did the population that depended upon them. From 60,000 residents in the late 1950s, belonging to six tribes, the population fell to 6,000 by 1995. The imminent final death of the marshes was broadcast and mourned by UNESCO and heritage groups throughout the world. And the death of the marshes would mean the extinction of a long and distinguished heritage of marsh Arabs as well. But the power of Hussein and the politics of the region meant little could be done in response.

Then Hussein was deposed by the invasion led by U.S. forces, and a window of opportunity for the marshes opened, first with a hole in the dike. Miraculously, the return of the waters began an almost instantaneous revival of the marshes. Soon the return of wandering tribes brought the population back up to 62,000. Suddenly the elders’ hopes were revived that a culture and way of life would be preserved. (The sparkle in the eyes of the shrieks of the Beni Asser was irrepressible when they were invited to remember their childhoods. Children and grandchildren wandered in and out of the motif where we were gathered.)

But no sooner did the dispersed return – from Iran, the Emirates, and the cities of Iraq to the East and North – than a plague of droughts and a catastrophe of dams began to exert their powers. Iran redirected all of the waters of the Kharoon to alternate uses in Iran, and absent the sweet water of the Iranian watershed, the salinity of the marshes began to rise and the volumes fall, so the land could not be flooded by the Tigris. With lower water levels and higher tides of the Gulf, there were further increases in the salinity of the water. Rice and other crops would no longer grow; fish populations changed. And Iraq’s dams reduced the flow of the Euphrates. The eight major cities along the course of the river dumped their raw sewage into the Major Outflow Drainage canal, further polluting the downstream. To meet the minimal requirements of the resurgent but struggling marshes, the hydrology was reversed and the Euphrates, polluted and diminished in its own right, was driven across the dried plain toward the Tigris. In the end, the flow of the Euphrates into the Gulf had to be completely closed so the currents are moderated and wastes do not move out of the system.

At the same time, oil exploration expanded and drilling fields were opened in the marshes. And to the North and West huge new dams are being built in Turkey, and water diverted to needs in Syria and Israel as well as Iraq.

The joy that Jassim al Asaadi, director of the Southern Basin work of Nature Iraq, feels for his work is palpable in his rehearsal of the history and statistics of his efforts to restore and preserve the marshes. His smile bursts out every time a sheik enters the community motif; every time a turn in the marsh runs brings us to an idle, to allow a neighbor to pass in a boat with a gunnels load of reeds; every time a policeman approaches the group, with a curiosity about the dozen foreigners examining a clever lock that allows the boats to move from the Tigris to the Euphrates watershed around gates controlling the flow of the Euphrates. He literally dances on the prow of the narrow marsh boats, as the drivers lift a spray-filled wake in the narrow channels.

Through the delightfully clever techniques of a young American journalist – who lives and works in Turkey, is part of our delegation, and shares a passion for the marsh issue – Jassim is coaxed into telling the story of his first kiss as a 15-year-old gathering reeds. This is also the story of visiting his father’s first store in the emerging town of Chibaishi after school each day. Particularly, it is a litany of eddies and lakes he likes to visit, and the birds and wildlife he looks for in the marshes (otters, turtles, fox).

He knows where the Sumerian ruins are buried. He knows the leadership of each tribe. And he knows the international environmental conventions, and coalitions, and partners he will need to work through and with to preserve this world heritage environment. We are another dozen arrows in his quiver to send the message abroad about the threats to this place and its peoples. Ally’s interview techniques also reveal that one of the drivers is a University of Basra graduate who returns to the marshes whenever he can for the sheer love of the place and to support fellow villager Jassim in his mission.

The visit was arranged by a young cadre of activists, both Iraqis and internationals – Joanna Rivera, an American of Puerto Rican heritage; Pantine from The Netherlands; Ahmad from Basra, working with Nature Iraq – seeking to a devise a strategy from this unique collection of visiting activists to organize an international campaign. It will be an effort worth watching. It has its parallels in the Yellow River dams of China; the stories of the Nile, and Amazon, and Colorado; the victories of the Glen Canyon Dam; and the risks of the Isilu. Time will tell if a growing coalition of young environmentalists will make a difference; but there isn’t much time left.

[Shat al Arab — Jassim al Asaadi, Nature Iraq, Southern Basin]

Mark Johnson is executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Photo: By Hassan Janali, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

[Ali - Iraq]

Photo Gallery: Nature Iraq shares common bond with Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve at Cley Marshes
But although these two marshland nature havens are worlds apart, they share a common bond – forged between those who have dedicated themselves to caring for the contrasting wildlife.

After a recent visit to Cley Marshes, the president of Nature Iraq, Azzam Alwash, agreed to make a donation of $1,000 (about £615) towards the Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s £1m appeal to purchase 143 acres of land to extend the existing reserve.

The gesture was to acknowledge the help which the fledgling Iraqi nature organisation has received from colleagues in Norfolk as it strives to revive habitats which suffered under the cruel regime of Saddam Hussein.

During his visit to Norfolk, Mr Alwash stayed at the Cley home of Richard Porter, who is a conservation advisor for Nature Iraq, having spent 40 years working with the RSPB and Birdlife International on wildlife projects across the Middle East.

Mr Porter said: “We organised an exhibition at Cley on the work of Nature Iraq, and when Azzam Alwash came over he stayed with me. I took him around the marshes and we agreed it would be a good idea to make that small donation.

“The size of it doesn’t matter, it was an act of friendship to show there was a brotherhood between these important areas of wildlife and people.

“He told me on his visits to Britain that he has seen how organisations like the NWT and the RSPB manage their reserves and their education programmes and he would like to see that repeating in Iraq. He has learned from us, and we have learned from him, so we have this mutual understanding and friendship.”

Although the marshes of Iraq are home to exotic birds like the Egyptian vulture and the sacred ibis, there are many species which will appear familiar to Norfolk bird-watchers.

“In Cley we have reed warblers, but in Iraq we have got Basra reed warblers, which is one of the world’s endangered species,” said Mr Porter. “It only breeds in the marshes of Iraq and is vulnerable to changes in the water flows from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

“If you’re talking about ducks, we have mallard and shoveler ducks nesting at Cley whereas in Iraq the number one duck is the marbled duck which is an internationally-vulnerable Red Data List species – and Iraq has the highest population of them in the world.

“These are both very, very rich reed beds and Iraq has the same species of reed as we have at Cley, so there are a few comparisons. “We have got otters at both, although there is a lot of discussion about the species in that occurs in Iraq, which we think is the smooth-coated otter. But we don’t have wild boar at Cley, which are common throughout the marshes of Iraq.”

Mr Porter said one of the great successes of Iraqi conservation was the re-flooding of the Mesopotamian Marshes, which were drained by Saddam Hussein’s government – destroying the centuries-old way of life of the persecuted Marsh Arabs .

In the process, this internationally-important wetland habitat was reduced to an arid wasteland.

“They were effectively drained by Saddam Hussein, who built two huge canals to take the water off this land,” said Mr Porter.

“When Saddam fell, a lot of people, including the fathers of Nature Iraq, got together to break the dams and the walls of these canals to re-flood the marshes. A considerable population of bird life is returning, and the Marsh Arabs are returning too.”

Since it was founded in 2004, Nature Iraq has also surveyed more than 220 sites to identify Iraq’s Key Biodiversity Areas. The KBA inventory to be published next year will be the country’s first step towards establishing a network of protected sites for wildlife.

Mr Porter said: “Nature Iraq is an upcoming organisation. I have been involved in wildlife conservation in the Middle East since 1966 and this is the best team of people I have come across in terms of their dedication, their survey techniques and the trustworthiness of their data in producing this inventory of their key biodiversity areas.”

Mr Porter has also written a book about the birds of the Middle East, the second edition of which was co-written with Simon Aspinall, the late naturalist who will be honoured by the naming of a new education centre planned at Cley.

To donate to NWT’s land purchase appeal, call 01603 625540 or visit www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/appeal.

To learn more about Nature Iraq or to make a donation towards its work, visit www.natureiraq.org or www.facebook.com/groups/natureiraq/

[SumerianKing]

[Al-Hashimi]

Originally Posted by SumerianKing

Saw that clip yesterday. Was about to post it but forgot it. It's a shame that the conditions are like that. It's obviously due to all the wars and because Syria and Iran have constructed dams as the clip also mentions.

A really great and challenging job must be done in order to safe it for future generations.

[Alulim]

الاهوار في السبعينيات

[SumerianKing]

Omg wow... look at her Sumerian jewelry. I dont even see them wearing jewelry anymore like that, so much has changed :'(

[Ishtarporten]

[KA3BI-IRAQ]

[IMG][/IMG]

i took this photo in dhi qar - al fohoud