Natural World - Miracle in the marshes of iraq

HI do you know that Gavin Maxwell, was up in Scotland trying to write a book on the marsh arabs,

he said to himself, if i am going to write this book i need to go back to iraq to do it, instead he wrote

"Ring Of Bright Water". best regards mac

Having now watched the program i can say that it produced a gamut of emotions for me - Anger, wonder, sadness, and hope.

I can remember the reports back in the early nineties of the persecution of the marsh Arabs and the Kurdish peoples by the Iraq regime, but never thought that any human being  could perform this wanton destruction of a complete ecosystem and the waste of resources that it took to achieve it., just to punish it's people

Although I have not always been a supporter of the invasion of Iraq for the reasons given ( though always in support of the troops sent to do the job), programs such as this do give some of the other reasons that it was necessary  to remove the old regime from power. ( I suppose WMD could stand for Wanton Marshland Devastation)

The one image of the Imperial eagle brought back fond memories of my only sighting of the species (actually the Spanish variant, now a separate species), ironically enough at about the same time as the reports of the persecution.

The way that the reintroduction of water was all that nature needed to start again, and the work involved to enable this.is breathtaking, as was the sight of more Marbled teal in one location than were thought to exist.

One major wory is the way the program highlighted the problems that can be caused in one country by "improvements" in another, (the water extraction in Syria and Turkey), and in future, nations will take more notice of the Global consequences of their actions,

This planet of ours is smaller than we ever thought.

The program does give hope for the future in that it proves that given thoughtful help nature is capable of healing a lot of the damage we do

Hi Nigel

Thank you for a well presented post that has given us lots of think about on here {big smile}

It did give a lot of mixed emotions about the whole serious situation with Iraq.

I still remember the confllict in Iraq all those years ago.  One thing I never realised that the whole war issue had such a effect on the area to the point it was a desert of sand, and not much else (except for wildlife that can survive in dry deserts of course)

I really hope what is being done for conservation will be a good thing for a war torn country such as Iraq - it might be a new beginning that is needed after all and let the rest be history to be left behind for one and for all.

I hope that is more parts to this programme in the near future to see how the 'studies' go and if the reed bed is turned into a thriving. wildlife community once more.

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Hi K & D

The terrible part about this whole thing is that the damage to the marsh areas (and the use of chemical weapons on the Iraqi Kurds), took place whilst Iraq was still supposedly a friend of the west.

the two groups of people did not get on with their own government in Baghdad, and this was the retribution dealt to them, by their own leaders. Of course at this time they were anti Iran so in favour with the west,so nothing serious was actually done about it

Sorry for my semi political rant but man's inhumanity to man, (and other living creatures), is something that does (thankfully ;) ), still make me angry :)

The program was fab, I used to think that nature couldn't be cared less by people in countries going through lots of problems like Iraq, but it has proved me wrong.

Top programme.

Just shows you that one person's vision and drive can change things for the better.

May the progress and good work continue for its wildlife and people.