As is increasingly coming to be recognized, wetlands have played a crucial role in the evolution of human civilisation. Despite the huge sense of mastery we may believe we have exerted over the natural environment, our sustainable development still depends to a significant degree on these remarkable ecosystems.

We see this through the recent combined impact of droughts, climate change and the consequences of the unsustainable management of water resources which has brought two of Iran’s most precious wetlands – Lake Urmia and the Hamouns – to the brink of ecological catastrophe.

Once these environmental assets were of immense value to the country and the local communities they supported. Now these two ecosystems have become sources of dust and salt storms – of poverty – and of severe health problems. Their biodiversity has all but disappeared.