Iraq’s southern wetlands, thought by some to be the biblical Garden of Eden, have been named a UNESCO World Heritage site. Saddam Hussein dammed and drained the marshes in the 1990s to flush out rebels hiding in the reeds. After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, locals destroyed dams to let water back in, restoring the marsh ecosystem within a few years. Many of the marshes’ inhabitants are subsistence fishermen, and the area is an important stop for migratory birds. The marshes are, however, once more threatened by new dams in Turkey and Iran, as well as by climate change.