Eco-Cultural rehabilitation of the mesopotamian marshes of southern Iraq

Background/Question/Methods The nexus between marsh rehabilitation and cultural revitalization in southern Iraq and the northern Gulf will be investigated, based on ethnographic interviews and historic information collected between 2002 and 2009.  As the 2002-2003 project manager of the Eden Again project, I interviewed Iraqi expatriates before the Iraq War, recording their longing to return to the marshes. Throughout the past five years, I have been in touch with Iraqi scientists, Marsh Dwellers, and members of the international community who are engaged in research and restoration of the marshes. In October 2008, I conducted over 20 hours of interviews with Iraqi scientists with the Nature Iraq project on their involvement in marsh rehabilitation. In April 2009, interviews with Iraqi Scientists and Marsh Arabs were conducted at the Third Scientific Conference on the Rehabilitation of the Southern Iraq Marshes in Basrah, Iraq.  This presentation will include a sythesis of data from ethnographic and ecological data from these interviews. 

Results/Conclusions

This talk will discuss the relationship between traditional Marsh Arab management of the Mesopotamian marshlands, and the diversity and resiliency of the al ahwar ecosystem.   The ethnographic interviews provide a human perspective on the al Ahwar marshes, and give voice and credibility to Iraqi cultural memories and a sense of place.  This unique approach to integrating cultural resiliency and ecosystem functions will provide new perspectives on marsh rehabilitation, and the ability to propose future steps for the rehabilitation process.  Intermediate scale disturbances created by Traditional Resource Management by the Marsh Arabs were integral to ecosystem structure and function.  In highly evolved cultural ecosystems, humans are the keystone species.  The al ahwar marshes are globally significant, partially due to the >5,000 year history of cultural knowledge and management of the marshes, and the legendary Marsh Arab lifestyle integral to the marshes.  The ecotone between wetlands, rivers and distributary channels provided culturally important semi-cultivated marsh species (Phragmites australis) as well as agricultural production.  Understanding the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of the Marsh Dwellers, and including this knowledge in marsh restoration, will support conservation biology, ecological restoration and sustainable development.