Mesopotamian Marshes & Modern Development
Practical Approaches for Sustaining Restored Ecological & Cultural LandscapesConference at Harvard Design School on October 28th – 30th, 2004
Pre-Conference discussion panels in New York City on October 26th and in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 27th and photographic exhibitions at Harvard University starting on October 20th
Hosted by: The Harvard Design School Center for Technology and Environment, the Harvard University Center for the Environment, the Center for International Development at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and the Harvard Design School Department of Landscape Architecture
And Co-Sponsored by: Applied Ecological Services, Canadian International Development Agency, CH2M HILL, Dharma Living Systems, Design Workshop, Ducks Unlimited, Iraq Foundation-Eden Again Project, Jones & Jones, Michael Baker Corporation, Montgomery Watson Harza, and North American Wetland Engineering, United States Agency of International Development
web address: www.gsd.harvard.edu/mesomarshes
email: mesomarshes@gsd.harvard.edu
conference phone line: 617-495-0647
The Mesopotamian marshes of southern Iraq, thought by some to be the original Garden of Eden, once provided habitat for millions of migrating birds and was inhabited since the time of the Sumerians by thousands of people living on artificial islands of mud and reeds and depending on sustainable fishing and farming. Since the early 1990s, a series of water manipulations have devastated this ecologically and culturally crucial region, leading to one of the most severe “ecocides” in history. The challenge is to creatively design and sustain an environmental restoration endeavor that will allow both for the preservation of traditional lifestyles and for modern development. Previous conferences have examined the feasibility of restoration efforts and the expected products that might ensue. The present conference will instead focus on practical approaches for sustaining the process of those restoration efforts, both during and after the reparation work. Furthermore, where other conferences have focused primarily on either the natural or the cultural aspects of restoration, but not on both, we recognize that by its very concept and application, restoration blurs the lines between what is “natural” and what is “cultural.” We hope to offer possible solutions to the sustainable development, both ecological and economic, of the restored Mesopotamian marshlands.
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