10 August 2007
BEKAA: In a wooden tower in the middle of the Ammiq marshes, some 10 miles southwest of Chtaura in the Bekaa Valley, Simon Sacer focuses his binoculars on a group of dry trees in the middle of the pond where newly hatched birds are nesting. The trees host 18 juvenile night herons that recently nested in the 280-hectare wetlands.
"It's like an animal motel where birds like to spend some time. If it's gone, it's a problem," says Sacer, a Dutch student touring the Middle East to record different bird songs as part of an art project.
Ten years ago, Sacer's fears seemed destined to be realized; the marshes were on their way to drying up. Farmers constantly draining water for their crops was one main threat that faced Chris and Susanna Naylor when they started their effort to have Ammiq recognized as a private nature reserve.
"One main problem was over-extraction of groundwater and the creation of new farmland from the wetlands," says Chris, director of A Rocha Lebanon (ARL), a local NGO and part of an international association that works to protect the environment.
In coordination with land-owners and farmers, ARL has worked to reduce water extraction, promoting a switch to crops like grapevines and olive trees that require less water. "Groundwater extraction is down about 30 percent," Naylor adds.
An excess of hunting was another challenge that threatened the living creatures on the wetlands. ARL conducted many information campaigns to raise awareness of the threat hunting poses to many endangered species. On the marshes, the landowners employed security guards to patrol and enforce bans on hunting and driving in the private wetlands.
A variety of birds, amphibians, mammals, butterflies, insects and fish live in the Ammiq wetlands, making it one of the most important nature preserves in Lebanon. With four ponds, the reserve attracts mammals from nearby hills. Twenty-two kinds of mammals were recorded in the wetlands, including rare wild boars, badgers and jungle cats.
"Many animals existed in the area before but disappeared when it dried up. After rehabilitation, they returned," says Mounir Abi Says, president of The Animal Encounter, an education center for wildlife conservation. It is the only protected wetlands in Lebanon where nature rebuilt itself, he says.
"Animals found in Ammiq naturally returned and were not reintroduced," he adds.
Abi Said, who also spent a couple of years observing mammals in Ammiq, says his team had photographed an otter three years ago. "It's a major, important animal and a scarce one that is not found in other protected areas," he adds.
On the side of a hill overlooking the western end of the marsh sits Colin Conroy, a scientific coordinator from ARL who surveys wild birds and mammals for one hour every week. "Most of these are water birds which I see in and around the large pools of water just next to the road," says Conroy.
He has been doing this every week since February 2005 - with a break of five months during and after last summer's war with Israel - at the same time of day, for the same length of time, and from the same location.
"This is one way of monitoring the effects of the management and protection of the marsh," adds Conroy, who says the marshes act as a central station for migrant birds.
Birds stop in Lebanon during their migration path from Europe and Asia into Africa.
The great snipe is an internationally threatened bird that stops in the Ammiq marshes in spring; 20 of these birds were recently recorded in the marsh.
"We've worked to optimize conditions for this bird to use the marshes," Naylor adds.
The great spotted eagle and the corncrake are other two globally threatened birds that are registered among 246 species in the Ammiq marshlands. This variety of birds has put the marshes among 22 sanctioned International Bird Areas.
Reptiles and amphibians also find in the still water at Ammiq a suitable habitat.
"It's the richest area in Lebanon for amphibians and reptiles. Frogs, toads and salamanders are found in great varieties," says Riyad Sadek, amphibians and reptiles professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB).
"None of the species are restricted to the area, but vast varieties are gathered around Ammiq," Sadek adds.
Insects, aquatic insects and dragonflies add to the biodiversity of the site. "Insects serve as food for fish, reptiles and amphibians. On the other hand, they decrease the number of mosquitoes eating their eggs," says Khouzama Knio Mawla, an associate professor of entomology at AUB.
The ponds of Ammiq are home to aquatic insects such as the big diving beetle and water spider, which feed on drowning insects, the entomologist adds.
"Dragonflies and mayflies live a part of their lives in water feeding on the decaying algae and creating an eco-balance," Mawla says.
After a day of recording bird songs in the marsh, Sacer says, "They should add paths and more signs to the wetlands for the area to become accessible. People will likely make their own way, which destroys more of the grass, reeds and ground of the marshes."
Aside from the noise of farm machinery close to the wetlands and some litter at one entrance to the park, the Dutch scholar says he found Ammiq a "wonderful, wet, green area with trees in the middle of the water for the birds to nest in."
Lebanon has one other wetland, Kfar Zabad in the Anjar region, which is not as big in size or in ecological population as Ammiq. Kfar Zabad is categorized as a hima, a traditional conservation system followed in some parts of the Middle East. A hima is a nature reserve that is protected under the eyes of local communities which benefit from the biodiversity as well as the cultural value of the protected area.
