Locations of the Ahwar of Southern Iraq, World Heritage Site.

Around 20,000 Marsh Arabs live in southern Iraq.

The marshes today remain one of the poorest areas in Iraq.

The wetlands span thousands of square miles in the middle of desert.

Alwash says he feels vindicated by the UNESCO listing.

But the marshes that survived for thousands of years have taken a beating in recent decades. Iraqi governments since the 1950s began draining parts of the marshes to expand agriculture and drill for oil.

Much of the land along the Gulf Coast is, or was, marshland.

But since Saddam was toppled in 2003, there have been efforts to restore the suffering marsh ecosystems.

There are still threats to the marshes primarily from agricultural runoff as well as drought attributed to climate change.

A few years ago, people were looking and laughing at me saying why do you want to restore the marshes?

In the 1980s, at war with Iran, Saddam Hussein sped up their destruction so the marshes couldn't serve as a refuge for fighters.

Iraqi American environmentalist Azzam Alwash and Nature Iraq, the group he founded, have set up an eco camp in the heart of the marshes.

While men in the marshes fish, women and girls do most of the manual labor including cutting and transporting the reeds.

Some students of ancient history believe the marshes, lined with reeds, teeming with fish and filled with birds, are the site of the biblical Garden of Eden.

On June 17, the UN cultural agency, UNESCO, added the marshlands and the ancient Sumerian cities that once flourished among them to its list of World Heritage Sites.

The marshes are in one of the safer parts of Iraq, just a few hours from Basra, but there are few foreign visitors.

Inhabitants of the marshes known as the Ma dan share the floating islands where they build reed houses with domesticated water buffalo, usually a household s most valuable possession.

The marshlands are on a main migratory bird path from Africa. With the water and fish stocks restored, pelicans, flamingoes and marbled teal ducks fill the skies.

When Iraqi Shiites, Kurds, and Marsh Arabs rebelled against Hussein, they believed that American forces would protect them against their brutal dictator s superior firepower.