Protected areas are the basic corner stone for protecting and managing the world's biodiversity, given their major and effective role in reducing the degradation of many ecosystems and habitats as a result of unsustainable human practices.
Housing may be the Third World's most intractable problem, but mud, adobe, earth-bricks, soil-cement and other traditional building materials are cheap, readily available and can be made and used by the poor people themselves to build their own homes. Today, mud perhaps offers the only practical prospect for building the millions of houses which will be needed over the next twenty years.
<p>This report includes an inventory of data and information on the Iraqi marshland ecosystem; technical guidance on the assessment framework and tools for ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation with regard to the requirements for World Heritage nomination; and guidance on the development of a network in the field of ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation which would contribute to the planning, implementation and monitoring the long-term management of the Iraqi marshlands, in relation to possible next steps in the World Heritage nomination process.</p>
