The Shiite tribes have lived for generations among towering reeds and in marshlands mainly in southern Iraq, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet.

But Saddam's regime ordered the construction of a series of dykes, which drained the marshes, and largely killed off the unique Madan civilisation.

The Canadian International Development Agency said its partnership with Canada's University of Waterloo would help restore an "important and environmentally sensitive region."

"During the 1990s, the wetlands were reduced to seven percent of their original size due to numerous dam projects upstream in Turkey, Syria and Iraq," said the agency in a press release.

"The population of the marshes has dropped from 500,000 people to 50,000, the majority of whom were displaced."

The University of Waterloo, west of Toronto, runs Canada's only university level research center based on wetlands.

TERRA.WIRE