Central Marshes of Iraq Declared as First National Park

Bonn, 16 August 2013 - On 23rd July 2013, the Iraqi Council of Ministers approved the designation of the Central Marshes of Iraq as the country’s first National Park. The Marshes represent one of the most important areas for migratory waterbirds in Western Eurasia and one of the critical network sites in the Middle East, supporting several million waterbirds.

In the early 1990s, the Marshes were nearly destroyed by a series of water manipulations devastating this ecologically and culturally important region, leading to one of the most severe "ecocides" in history.

The full press release from Nature Iraq can be found here here.