{"id":39498,"date":"2019-05-25T15:23:31","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T15:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=39498"},"modified":"2019-05-25T15:23:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-25T15:23:31","slug":"iraqis-turn-to-budding-ecotourism-to-save-marshes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=39498","title":{"rendered":"Iraqis turn to budding ecotourism to save marshes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nCHIBAYISH, Iraq: Thirty years after Saddam Hussein starved them of water, Iraq\u2019s southern marshes are blossoming once more thanks to a wave of ecotourists picnicking and paddling down their replenished river bends.
A one-room home made of elaborately woven palm reeds floats on the river surface. Near it, a soft plume of smoke curls up from a firepit where carp is being grilled, Iraqi-style. A few canoes drift by, carrying couples and groups of friends singing to the beat of drums.
\u201cI didn\u2019t think I would find somewhere so beautiful, and such a body of water in Iraq,\u201d said Habib Al-Jurani.
He left Iraq in 1990 for the US, and was back in his ancestral homeland for a family visit.
\u201cMost people don\u2019t know what Iraq is really like \u2014 they think it\u2019s the world\u2019s most dangerous place, with nothing but killings and terrorism,\u201d he said.
Looking around the lush marshes, declared in 2016 to be Iraq\u2019s fifth UNESCO World Heritage site, Jurani added: \u201cThere are some mesmerising places.\u201d
Straddling Iraq\u2019s famous Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Mesopotamian marshes are a rare aquatic ecosystem in a country nearly half of which is covered in cracked desert.
Legend has it, they were home to the biblical Garden of Eden.
But they were also a haven for political opposition to dictator Saddam Hussein, who cut off water to the site in retaliation for the south\u2019s uprising against him in 1991.
Around 90 percent of the once-expansive marshes were drained, and the area\u2019s 250,000 residents dwindled down to just 30,000.
In the ensuing years, severe droughts and decreased water flows from the twin rivers\u2019 source countries \u2014 Turkey and Iran \u2014 shrunk the marshes\u2019 surface from some 15,000 sq. km. to less than half that. It all culminated with a particularly dry winter last year that left the \u201cahwar,\u201d as they are known in Arabic, painfully parched.
But heavier rains this year have filled more than 80 percent of the marshes\u2019 surface area, according to the UN, compared to just 27 percent last year.
That has resurrected the ancient lifestyle that dominated this area for more than 5,000 years.
\u201cThe water returned, and with it normal life,\u201d said 35-year-old Mehdi Al-Mayali, who raises water buffalo and sells their milk, used to make rich cream served at Iraqi breakfasts.
Wildlife including the vulnerable smooth-coated otter, Euphrates softshell turtles, and Basra reed warbler have returned to the marshlands \u2014 along with the pickiest of all species: Tourists.<\/p>\n

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\nBACKGROUND<\/span><\/strong>
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\nStraddling Iraq\u2019s famous Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Mesopotamian marshes are a rare aquatic ecosystem in a country nearly half of which is covered in cracked desert. Legend has it, they were home to the biblical Garden of Eden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\u201cEcotourism has revived the \u2018ahwar.\u2019 There are Iraqis from different provinces and some foreigners,\u201d Mayali said.
A day in the marshes typically involves hiring a resident to paddle a large reed raft down the river for around $25 \u2014 not a cheap fare for Iraq. Then, lunch in a \u201cmudhif\u201d or guesthouse, also run by locals.
\u201cEcotourism is an important source of revenue for those native to the marshes,\u201d said Jassim Assadi, who heads Nature Iraq.
The environmental activist group has long advocated for the marshes to be better protected and for authorities to develop a long-term ecotourism plan for the area.
\u201cIt\u2019s a much more sustainable activity than the hydrocarbon and petroleum industry,\u201d said Assadi, referring to the dominant industry that provides Iraq with about 90 percent of state revenues.
The numbers have steadily gone up in recent years, according to Assaad Al-Qarghouli, tourism chief in Iraq\u2019s southern province of Dhi Qar.
\u201cWe had 10,000 tourists in 2016, then 12,000 in 2017 and 18,000 in 2018,\u201d he told AFP.
But there is virtually no infrastructure to accommodate them.
\u201cThere are no tourist centers or hotels, because the state budget was sucked up by war the last few years,\u201d Qarghouli told AFP.
Indeed, Daesh overran swathes of Iraq in 2014, prompting the government to direct its full attention \u2014 and the bulk of its resources \u2014 to fighting it back.<\/p>\n

Iraq\u2019s government declared victory in late 2017 and has slowly begun reallocating resources to infrastructure projects.
Qarghouli said the marshes should be a priority, and called on the government to build \u201ca hotel complex and touristic eco-village inside the marshes.\u201d
Peak season for tourists is between September and April, avoiding the summer months of Iraq when temperatures can reach a stifling 50 degrees Celsius.
But without a long-term government plan, residents worry that water levels will be hostage to fluctuating yearly rainfalls and shortages caused by Iranian and Turkish dams.
These dynamics have already damaged the marshes\u2019 fragile ecosystem, with high levels of salination last year killing fish and forcing other wildlife to migrate.
Jurani, the returning expatriate, has an idea of the solution.
\u201cAdventurers and nature-lovers,\u201d he said, hopefully.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHIBAYISH, Iraq: Thirty years after Saddam Hussein starved them of water, Iraq\u2019s southern marshes are blossoming once more thanks to a wave of ecotourists picnicking and paddling down their replenished river bends.A one-room home made of elaborately woven palm reeds floats on the river surface. Near it, a soft plume of smoke curls up from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":39499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}