On May 11, Nature Iraq celebrated World Migratory Bird Day in Chibaish, our home base in the Southern Mesopotamian Marshlands.  WMBD was initiated in 2006 and is an annual awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need for the protection of migratory birds and their habitats. On the second weekend each May, people around the world take action and organize public events such as bird festivals, education programs and birdwatching excursions to celebrate WMBD. 

Nature Iraq’s celebration of WMBD included lectures and workshops on the relationship between migratory birds and tourism, birds’ migration, Iraq’s first national park, use of equipment in fieldwork studying wildlife, a bird field guides, bird count methodologies, and data analysis.

One overarching theme of the event, was introducing participants on how to develop sustainable tourism through bird watching, photography of wildlife, and marketing innovative products and handicrafts to improve livelihoods in the area, with benefits for both people and wildlife. These links can be used to build a sustainable long-term plans for economic growth and to preserve wildlife for a better future for both communities and wildlife.  

More than 30 people participated, including students from the Teacher’s Institute, delegates from the Ministry of Water resources, and volunteer birdwatchers.

Nature Iraq’s WMBD celebration was an activity of the Marshlands Empowerment Project a two-year program that will foster and improve the socio-economic circumstances and culture of Marsh Arab women and men while protecting the biological diversity and natural resources of the Mesopotamian marshlands within the framework of Iraq’s first National Park through an integrated program of research, development activities, training, advocacy, and information sharing.

Nature Iraq, BirdLife in Iraq, is pleased to announce that it has received funding from the Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation (AVJCF) to conduct a two-year program that will foster and improve the socio-economic circumstances and culture of Marsh Arab women and men while protecting the biological diversity and natural resources of the Mesopotamian Marshlands within the framework of the Iraq’s first National Park through an integrated program of research, development activities, training, advocacy, and information sharing.

In the 1990s, the Saddam regime conducted a campaign to completely drain the marshlands, reducing their footprint by nearly 93%. After 2003, local people and the government took action to restore the waters, and the southern marshlands, though greatly changed, have returned, as have the birds, fish, water buffalo, and the Ma’dan, and remain a vital economic and ecological resource.

Ammar Zakri, Nature Iraq’s CEO, said of the project: “The Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation’s generous support will enable us to build on the long work we have already done in the marshes, and expand the scope of our activities related to the new National Park.“

The project will consist of three major interrelated activities: 

1. Data collection and dissemination: We will supplement our long running information gathering projects by conducting targeted threat assessments, bird counts, and socio-economic surveys of fishing, hunting, and gathering practices.
   
2. Capacity building:  We will strengthen the capacity of government officials and of community members in and around the National Park, with the aim of enable more effective and appropriate hunting and natural resource regulations to be formulated and their enforcement strengthened to eliminate unsustainable fishing and hunting practices and encourage better management of the marshlands.
   
3. Socio-economic development: We will identify institutions and individuals active in socio-economic development, bolster participation in existing institutions, and facilitate the formation of new institutions, if necessary. 
   
   

A major value of this project will be assistance in bridging gaps between government bodies, including the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Water Resources, local councils, and governorate-level bodies and the local community members whose lives will be directly affected by the institution of the national park.

Do you know how to turn a plastic bottle into a bird feeder?

Over the last three months, Baxan Jamal, the educational officer for the Darwin Project in In-Situ Conservation, has been conducting educational activities in 5 elementary schools in villages around Piramagroon mountain. Over 150 students were engaged in making bird feeders and learning about balance of nature and observing seasonal changes in their environment through other two activities.  

Fox and hare-> Leopard and wild goat, and the coulors and sounds of nature.

The activities were designed to be locally local relevant and scientifically sound, and were created with input from experts at of BirdLife International and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. In April, Baxan will conduct another set of activities, leading towards one of the ultimate goals of the Darwin Project, to produce a toolkit of environmental activities to be used in schools around Iraqi Kurdistan, and serve as a model for similar projects around the region.

October was a big month for the Darwin Project, with experts from Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and BirdLife International spending two weeks in Sulaimani with Nature Iraq staff. 

Over the course of 3 weeks, the team conducted a plant survey of Piramagroon Mountain with local experts’ assistance and training, mainly based in Zewe village, with a few days spent in the hidden hanging valley (Qola Rash) just below one of the mountain’s peaks. 

A four-day bird identification training took place simultaneously to the surveys in the Nature Iraq Eco Camp.  Ten participants attended the training: 5 from Kurdistan, 4 of whom were forestry police, and 5 from other parts of the country. Topics included an introduction to field work, methods of counting birds, criteria for selection of protected areas, and management of protected areas.

The bird training was followed by a field training for University of Sulaimani students who participated in the online course conducted by Nature Iraq, RBGE, Birdlife, and the University. The training focused on plant profiling and a nature walk which reflected what students learned in the online course. 

Following the success of the online course this year, with 24 students and staff from the University completing 5 to 6 modules, the course will be reprised for the coming year.

Our partner BirdLife International's online documentation of the migration of the Critically Endangered Sociable Lapwing, The Amazing Journey, has been detailing the journey of three of these birds who have been tagged with satellite trackers.  Most recently, one of the birds was located in Saudi Arabia, and her flight path took her directly over western Iraq.  Nature Iraq has been involved in the tracking of and research on these birds, and this is exciting news for us.  Head to the Amazing Journey page to learn more about these remarkable birds, and their journey.

BirdLife International, the world’s oldest and  largest partnership for nature held its 90th Congress in Ottawa, Canada from 19-22 June. It was one of the world’s greatest gatherings of conservation organisations with over 500 people from 120 countries. Nature Iraq was there!

Dr Azzam Alwash, NI's founder, inspired the audience with the story of the re-flooding of the Mesopotamian Marshes and of the fieldwork over the past 8 years, often in dangerous situations, to produce an inventory of Key Biodiversity Areas. This, the first step towards a national network of protected areas, was greatly received by the large international audience. The draft site accounts of over 100 sites are already on our website. Take a look - you will be amazed at what has been achieved! 

The audience applauded when Azzam announced that Iraq would soon be declaring its first National Park - in the heart of the Mesopotamian wetlands.

Nature Iraq made many new friends and supporters at the Congress and is now making the final steps to becoming a full partner of BirdLife. 

In the photo Azzam is displaying his passion for conservation to HIH Princess Takamado, BirdLife's president and Marco Lambertini, BirdLife's CEO, whilst Ibrahim Khader, head of BirdLife's Middle East division watches on.

Learn more about this amazing international gathering on BirdLife's website: http://birdlifecongress.org/

Nature Iraq, in collaboration with BirdLife International and Finland's Ministry of Environment, has been invited to participate in a pair of groundbreaking surveys on global environmental attitudes, examining both levels of education and awareness and attitudes towards institutional involvement.

As the authors of the survey phrase it:

We would invite you do do a small thing for the environment today by filling out the two surveys located here and here.

From the fall of last year until now, one of Nature Iraq's most important partners, BirdLife International, is celebrating a major anniversary!  BirdLife was founded as the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP) on June 20th, 1922, which makes it the oldest conservation organization in the world at 90 years old.  The unique BirdLife Partnership of dedicated national membership organizations was formed 20 years ago.  All in all, this is a big time for a great organization.

BirdLife is the world's largest partnership global partnership of conservation organizations.  They strive to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources. BirdLife Global Partners operate in over 100 countries and territories, have more than 4,000 staff working for conservation, have over 2,500,000 members and  10,000,000 supporters world wide, work with over 2 million children annually and own or manage over 1,000,000 hectares of land.  You can learn much more about them by visiting their website.

Nature Iraq's partnership with BirdLife is almost as old as Nature Iraq itself.  In 2005, while preparing to launch the Key Biodiversity Areas project, BirdLife provided training in Jordan and Syria for NI staff.  As Nature Iraq's work has expanded from the Mesopotamian Marshlands north into the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central and western governorates, BirdLife's technical support and aid in fundraising have been invaluable.  Their contributions to our work have ranged from further training on bird census techniques to helping us obtain donated binoculars from Swarovski Optics and from bolstering our application to the Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund for our work on the Sociable Lapwing Project to providing advice on and helping us print a field guide to the birds of Iraq.  In 2008, Nature Iraq became an official affiliate of BirdLife, and in 2010, we were nominated as a partner designate.  In 2012, we had the chance to host the Regional Conference, during which it was decided NI would coordinate the work on updating the list of Important Bird Areas of the Middle East, written in 1994.  BirdLife are also crucial partners in the Darwin Conservation Project.