Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Nature (IUCN). These are sites of global significance for biodiversity conservation
(Nature Iraq 2009). The Nature Iraq KBA Project is the largest and most comprehen-
sive study in this highly volatile region in more than twenty-five years. Biological indi-
cators were sampled at more than one hundred sites with birds as the primary focus of
survey work, especially those species of “conservation concern.”
Korsh Ararat is a field biologist specializing in ornithology. He told me, “It was my
dream to work in the marshes. I collected everything we could find on the marshes”
(Stevens 2009). He worked as a translator for the British, then for Nature Iraq. “I love
the marshes,” Ararat said. “Nature compensated me and gave me things. I love it. I
consider it my mother. I want to give back.” When he first began studying birds in the
marshes, he had to make his own binoculars and collected all the topics and maga-
zines he could find about natural history. Ararat said, “I found no one in Iraq who
could write about birds, so I started to write a topic.” Since then, he has helped com-
plete both the
Field Guide to the Birds of Iraq
and a
Children's Guide to the Birds of
Iraq
(Ararat and Porter 2008; Fadhel, Salim, and Ararat 2008).
Botanist Muzhir Shibil said, “Each time I go to the marshes, I learn more. And the
life in the marshes is amazing. The marshes are a very natural location to the world.
Part of it could be used for ecotourism, and to help the locals. This would help con-
serve the marshes, to save them. Ecotourism would be friendly for the environment
and can provide benefits for people and the marshes. I think it can help people to be
in contact with the people from other countries and see the other traditions. But with-
out change, these traditions need to be maintained. We want to keep this special”
(Stevens 2009).
Nature Iraq also conducted socioeconomic surveys of older people, or
Sherch
,as
they called them, people who lived in the marshes and have many experiences and
stories to tell. Botanist Muzhir Shibil said, “We talked with them about their lives and
what their lives are like now, compared with before the marshes were drained. They
said that before the marshes were drained their life was easier and generated more in-
come, because fishing was always good in the area” (Stevens 2009). According to Ibra-
hem Abed, Nature Iraq fisheries biologist, economically important fish are almost
completely absent from the marshes, particularly the species that require good water
quality. These fish have only been recorded at a few sites and in small numbers, de-
spite the fact that Iraq's southern marshes have always been considered an important
spawning and nursery ground for them.
Currently, some people have a generator and electricity, which were not available
before, and almost everyone has a cell phone. Even in urban areas, electricity is inter-
mittent and undependable; people who can afford generators turn them on when the
electricity cuts out. Most people in the marshes have low incomes, and jobs are few
and far between. Educational and training opportunities for people in the marshes are
in high demand and short supply. People want better education for their children and
more schools; like people everywhere, they want their children to have a better life
than they have had. In Basra, I saw young boys on busy and dangerous street corners
running into the street to sell trinkets to people in idling cars. Education used to be
mandatory, and exploitation of children would have been forbidden. There are also
many widows after so many years of war; they stand on street corners wearing black
