Protected areas

The Barzan valley, near the Turkish border on the Greater Zab, is a very important site for Kurds and particularly for the Kurdish Barzani tribe. This area has a long history of tribal governance, and it is particularly important because Barzani tribe established a sort of tribal reserve in this

The Hawizeh Marshes was designated as the first Ramsar site of Iraq in 2007, with an area of 137,700 hectares (1,377 sq. km.). The Hawizeh Marsh forms part of the Mesopotamian Marshes which used to be the largest freshwater marshlands in Western Eurasia. The site is internationally important for

The program for the establishment of the Mesopotamia Marshlands National Park (MMNP) started in April 2006 within the New Eden Project carried out and funded by the Italian Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea. A Feasibility Study was developed in 2007 as the preliminary document to assess the