Kyoto/Nairobi, 5 September
2008 - An initiative was unveiled today
to list the Fertile Crescent, thought by
some to be the location of the Biblical
‘Garden of Eden’, as a World Heritage Site.
Supported by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in
cooperation with the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
with funding from the Government of Italy,
the proposed listing aims to further the
conservation of a wetland of global, cultural,
natural and environmental significance.
The Marshlands of the
Tigris and Euphrates delta, spawning grounds
for Gulf fisheries and home to wide variety
of bird species, were almost totally drained
and destroyed by the former regime of Iraqi
president Saddam Hussein during the 11000s
and early 21st century.
Dams upstream on the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which feed
the fabled area, had also aggravated the
decline. By 2002 the 9,000 square km of
permanent wetlands had dwindled to just
1000 square km.
UNEP estimated then
that these wetlands would be completely
lost within three to five years unless urgent
action was taken.
The World Heritage management
support plan, announced at the end of a
meeting in Kyoto, follows a four-year, $14
million UNEP project to restore the ecological
viability of the site and sustainable livelihoods
to the Marsh Arabs.
Heirs to the ancient
Babylonian and the Sumerian civilizations,
the Marsh Arabs and their wetland home had
been targeted by the former Iraqi government,
forcing an estimated 200,000 to 300,000
people into exile or camps in and outside
Iraq.
With the collapse of
the Saddam Hussein government in mid-2003,
local residents began breaking the drainage
embankments and opening the floodgates to
bring water back into the Marshlands.
The UNEP Marshland management
project, which commenced in 2004 with funding
from the UN Iraq Trust Fund, the Government
of Japan and the Government of Italy, has
been working with the Iraqi environment
ministry and local communities to accelerate
improvements.
These include environmentally-friendly
methods of providing safe drinking water
for up to 22,000 people, the planting of
reed banks and beds as natural pollution
and sewage filters and the introduction
of renewable energies such as solar.
A Marshland Information
Network has been established. Training in
satellite and field monitoring and wetland
restoration and management has also been
part of the project which today completed
its final evaluation phase at the Kyoto
meeting.
Narmin Othman, the Iraqi
Environment Minister who is in Japan for
the event, said: "I am very happy that
we are now going to work towards making
the Marshlands a National Park and a globally
important World Heritage Site.”
“Because of what Saddam
Hussein did, the Marshlands were in danger
of completely disappearing, as was the centuries-old
culture of the Marsh Arabs. It had become
an ecological but also a human tragedy,”
she said.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General
and UNEP Executive Director, said: “I would
like to thank the Governments of Japan and
Italy for their support and congratulate
the Iraqi people on these extraordinary
achievements.”
Mr Steiner said he looked
forward to working with the Iraqi government
and cooperating with UNESCO on developing
a comprehensive management plan en route
to securing a World Heritage Site listing
and thanked the government of Italy for
its invaluable support.
