Some Hopeful News In Iraq
From the Middle East OnlineBirdLife International, Nature Iraq jointly publish first fully illustrated comprehensive field guide of Iraq birds in Arabic.
LONDON - Iraq's first field guide for bird watchers shows how destroyed unique marsh are making a comeback, despite the violence now plaguing the country, the publishers said on Thursday.
Wildlife charity BirdLife International and a newly formed Iraqi organisation called Nature Iraq have jointly published their "Field Guide to the Birds of Iraq" in Arabic.
They described the volume, partly funded by the Canadian government and the World Bank, as the first fully illustrated comprehensive field guide to an Arabic speaking country.
It shows the rebirth of marsh habitats in the south of the country, which were 90 percent drained, but have been 40 percent reflooded since 2003.
"These are some of the most wildlife-rich sites in the Middle East, but often all we hear about is the conflict," Richard Porter, BirdLife International's Middle East adviser and co-author of the guide, said in a statement.
Iraq has 387 bird species, many of them native to the marshes in the south of the country where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow toward the sea, an area that has been described as the likely location of the biblical Garden of Eden.
"For Iraq -- a nation that has lost so much of its wildlife in the last 20 years, this book opens the door for the growing conservation movement in this country," said Dr Ali Douabul of Nature Iraq."
posted by birdchick at 12:57 PM
4 Comments:
That is such good news! Thanks for that Sharon.
I know that there really is a shortage of good guide books for this part of the world. We were in the Sinai Peninsula in July and I looked everywhere for a good guide book. I didn't know whether to get one for North Africa or the Middle East. The Mediterranean guides I have weren't going to close but not close enough. I ordered a Middle East guide book from Amazon but I cancelled the order as it never showed up before we left.
I worked at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary with interns from both Palestine and Turkey and they used Field Guide to the Birds of the Middle East which also had an Arabic edition. It seemed pretty good from what I saw. It was fun paging thru both editions because Arabic reads right to left so you had to page in opposite directions.
oh wow! i'd love to have a look at that field guide!
I am so glad to hear about the marshes returning in Iraq. Thanks for posting about it!
Post a Comment
<< Home