Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world
conference on return of arabs to the mesopotamian marshes
The Mesopotamian Marshes, located between the Tigres and Euphrates Rivers in southern Iraq, were historically one of the world's most important wetland environments. The area of once over 20,000 square kilometers—thought by some to be the original Garden of Eden—provided habitat for millions of migrating birds and has been inhabited since the time of the Sumerians by thousands of people living on artificial islands of mud and reeds and depending on sustainable fishing and farming. Since the early 1990s, however, this important ecological and unique cultural jewel has been devastated by a series of thoughtless dam constructions and deliberate water diversions that has led to what many have come to regard as one of the most severe "ecocides" in human history. At the same time as the wetlands were being destroyed, the 5,000-year old way of life of the marsh dwellers was all but erased. During the last year, a concerted effort has begun to design and sustain an environmental restoration endeavor in the Mesopotamian Marshes that balances the desire for maintaining traditional lifestyles within the longer context of modern development.
This free public lecture and audio-visual presentation is affiliated with the conference on Mesopotamian Marshes and Modern Development being run by the Graduate School of Design.