Environmental Training Programme for Iraqi Biologists

M. Salim (BirdLife/CIMI) The Iraq team survey the Haur Al Hammar Important Bird Area Zoom In

In late 2004, BirdLife International's Middle East Office in Jordan began organising and delivering a training programme for eight Iraqi biologists.

The birdlife of Iraq, particularly the important Mesopotamian marshlands, has become something of an unknown quanity in recent years, so this offers a crucial opportunity. For instance, in December 2004 a satellite-tracked Lesser White-fronted Goose originally ringed in Siberia turned up at an unsurveyed IBA east of Baghdad. "This is a good example of how little we currently know about Iraq's birdlife and what remains to be discovered. There's a very good chance that the survey team could find other rare and unexpected species, including even the tantalising possibility of the critically endangered Slender-billed Curlew," reported Sharif Al Jbour, BirdLife’s Project Officer in the Middle East.

BirdLife is offering the training together with the University of Waterloo (Ontario) and Environment Canada, under the umbrella of the Canada-Iraq Marshlands Initiative (CIMI), funded by the Canadian Development Agency (CIDA).

Two initial training sessions were arranged. The first took place in Jordan during November 2004. During the second session in Syria at the end of January 2005 the group surveyed a noteworthy group of 725 White-headed Ducks at Sabkhat Al-Jabbul, a large salt lake. "This constitutes as much as 14.5% of the estimated regional population," commented Richard Porter of BirdLife's Middle East Division.

With their new skills in place, the team of biologists commenced their initial surveys of Iraq's Mesopotamian marshes in February 2005 - an ongoing process that will continue throughout the year and help raise awareness among local scientists, citizens and the international community of Iraq's important biodiversity.