A salt lake that tinges pink when summer heat shrinks its footprint, the lake was flush with water when they visited. \u201cThis is a very lovely place, but I\u2019ve never seen Maharloo like this,\u201d Ebrahimi said. The winter rains had been heavier than normal, to be sure, but he said he also suspects that agricultural and industrial activity, muted by the war, were drawing off less water from the lake \u2014 an unanticipated impact.<\/p>\n
Ebrahimi and his teammates from the NGO\u00a0AvayeBoom Bird Conservation Society\u00a0are doing their best to track the conflict\u2019s effects on Iran\u2019s environment. They\u2019ve noticed, for example, shifts in bird aggregations, apparently moving away from areas that reverberate with airstrikes.<\/p>\n
But the war has also laid bare the damage caused by\u00a0international sanctions\u00a0imposed by the U.S., the EU and the U.N., along with other moves to cut Iran off from the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran\u2019s nature, Iranian conservationists and Iranian researchers have been isolated for a long time,\u201d Ebrahimi told Mongabay in an email. \u201cThe war has made that isolation more visible, but it did not create it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That isolation has blocked funding and diminished the capacity of Iranian scientists while simultaneously stifling their access to opportunities for professional learning. Researchers outside Iran have called for greater inclusivity for the country\u2019s scientific community.<\/p>\n
That would not only benefit the people doing science in the country, but it would also be vital to ensuring that global conservation efforts are effective, Ebrahimi said. \u201cWhat worries me most is that even within the global environmental community, I don\u2019t think we have fully accepted that we cannot ignore some parts of the world and still claim to protect nature globally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, peace negotiations stumble on five months after a joint attack by Israel and the U.S. launched the war on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n In 2015, Ebrahimi was one of the co-founders of AvayeBoom, an Isfahan-based NGO where he is currently deputy director. The organization\u2019s website reflects a birder\u2019s passion, with a carefully cultivated list of Iran\u2019s\u00a0nearly 600 documented species, including their scientific, English and Persian names. Numerous photos show team members scanning wetlands and waterways with binoculars and spotting scopes during surveys.<\/p>\n The group\u2019s focus centers on \u201creconnecting people with wetlands through birds,\u201d Ebrahimi said. For more than five years, AvayeBoom has been working with communities around the Arjan wetland, which is part of\u00a0the UNESCO-listed Arjan and Parishan Biosphere Reserve, in southwestern Iran.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a biodiversity hotspot that\u2019s home to thousands of species, but\u00a0illegal bird hunting\u00a0has been a problem. What\u2019s more, livestock have historically\u00a0overgrazed\u00a0the surrounding land, and\u00a0climate change-linked droughts, well drilling, and conversion of former wetland to agriculture have meant that Arjan is now dry for part of the year.<\/p>\n AvayeBoom is trying to protect these spectacular wetlands, which attract bird species by the hundreds and act as vital habitat for migrating waterbirds \u2014 while acknowledging the fact that people need to feed their families.<\/p>\n Part of the group\u2019s work involved\u00a0identifying a \u201cflagship\u201d species\u00a0with local communities. Drawing on research from as far afield as\u00a0China\u00a0and\u00a0Tanzania, Ebrahimi and his colleagues aimed to connect the people from the region with a culturally significant species that they had a say in selecting as a way of \u201cencouraging environmentally responsible behaviors.\u201d AvayeBoom says it hopes that bird-watching can bring some economic benefits, which could help reduce the push to farm ever-increasing areas of land. And hunters may reconsider taking birds.<\/p>\n But Ebrahimi said the primary goal is to restore the connection between people and nature through a locally important symbol \u2014 in this case, the ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea<\/em>) \u2014 and inspire a steady commitment to conservation that can withstand even the terrors of war.<\/p>\n Today, he said, paintings of the ruddy shelduck, with its crimson and tawny plumage and a trademark neck ring of dark feathers, adorn the walls of schools. And the team now stays with community members when they visit, which Ebrahimi attributes to the organization\u2019s efforts to encourage conservation at the village level.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they care about conservationists, if the people call us to invite us to their homes, we can be sure that they care about wildlife and nature, too,\u201d Ebrahimi said.<\/p>\n But increasingly, Ebrahimi said, there are fewer people working to protect wildlife and ecosystems \u2014 a trend the war could exacerbate.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really worried about extinction \u2014 of conservationists,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Some are no longer in Iran, driven away in part by the lack of support for their work. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have funding for more than [a] couple of months, you have to choose whether you go for another job, or you must leave the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet another challenge to Iranian scientists has been persecution at the hands of their own government. Five conservationists working to protect\u00a0the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus<\/em>)<\/u>\u00a0in Iran\u00a0were arrested in 2018<\/u>\u00a0on suspicion of spying on the country\u2019s missile program. Then, on July 1, two of them, Houman Jowkar and Sepideh Kashani,\u00a0were arrested again by security forces<\/u>, along with Kashani\u2019s sister, Sima.<\/p>\n The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) noted Jowkar and Kashani\u2019s contributions to the cheetah\u2019s survival and asked that they be freed in\u00a0a statement<\/u>.<\/p>\n \u201cHouman, Sepideh and Sima have a deep love for their country and its unique natural heritage,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWCS respectfully calls for their prompt release so they may return to their families.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a problem that scientists outside Iran have started to speak up about.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat concerns me most is that political conflict and scientific isolation damage not only individual careers, but also the broader body of knowledge in Iran,\u201d Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, an economics professor at Marburg University in Germany, told Mongabay in an email. Economic sanctions against Iran that are intended to weaken the state often hamper the development of a strong middle class. That includes university professors and researchers and their ability to remain at jobs in academia, Farzanegan said. \u201cOver time, this contributes to brain drain and weakens the long-term scientific and economic development of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Ebrahimi echoed those sentiments: \u201cWhen a country becomes scientifically, financially and digitally isolated, it also loses the capacity to see, document and understand what is happening to its own nature.\u201d<\/p>\n For years, Farzanegan has been involved in cooperative projects between universities in Germany and Iran, across disciplines spanning everything from natural resources and disaster management to climate change and water governance. He said these experiences have given him an unvarnished view of the potential that Iranian scientists possess \u2014 and the hurdles they face.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat impressed me most was the quality, seriousness and resilience of Iranian researchers, especially younger scholars working under difficult institutional and political conditions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n At the same time, Farzanegan noticed that they often lack the \u201cbasic conditions for normal research,\u201d whether reliable internet, journal access, or robust banking channels. These are issues that predate the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cThe war has made the problem more visible, but Iranian scientists have faced partial exclusion from the global scientific conversation for many years, despite the significant scientific talent in the country,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Ebrahimi noted the heavy toll on science. \u201cWar makes damage visible. Sanctions and isolation make damage normal,\u201d he said. \u201cThey weaken science, conservation institutions, NGOs, field monitoring and international collaboration long before bombs fall.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. and Israeli military strikes\u00a0have damaged\u00a0educational and research facilities and knocked out electricity and telecommunications, crippling research.<\/p>\n In<\/a>\u00a0a recent letter\u00a0published in the journal\u00a0Science<\/em>, Farzanegan and a colleague note that the war \u201chas pushed Iran\u2019s scientific community into acute isolation.\u201d To \u201cprevent the collapse of Iranian science,\u201d they laid out a proposal for \u201ca humanitarian corridor for science.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers outlined ways that the global scientific community can support their peers in Iran amid long-standing sanctions, war and the actions of their own government. Scientists need fellowships and grants, help with visas and collaboration through neutral countries, as well as streamlined access to journals, databases and other resources.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch a \u2018corridor\u2019 would not mean ignoring legal or security restrictions. It should operate within clear humanitarian and academic safeguards,\u201d Farzanegan said. \u201cThe aim is to prevent collective punishment of researchers and students.\u201d<\/p>\n From Ebrahimi\u2019s perspective, this would be helpful. Currently, \u201cInternational payments are almost impossible, institutional connections are unstable, internet access is limited or extremely expensive and even staying connected to the global scientific conversation has become a daily struggle,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n Still, he added, \u201cI also think the situation is more complicated than simply saying the scientific world has abandoned Iranian researchers. There have been important efforts to keep science partly separate from politics.\u201d<\/p>\n Other researchers have raised concerns about the potential impacts of the war.\u00a0A recent editorial\u00a0in the journal\u00a0Nature Sustainability<\/em>\u00a0warned of the war\u2019s \u201clong environmental shadow,\u201d as energy and water infrastructure become common targets in military conflicts.<\/p>\n Another letter in\u00a0Science<\/em>\u00a0detailed the specific impacts the war could have on marine life. There are serious ramifications from oil spills, in particular in the Strait of Hormuz: The waterway and its surroundings provide critical habitat for dugongs and other marine species, noted Ning Wang, a co-author and deputy director of the\u00a0State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea\u00a0at Hainan University in China.<\/p>\n It can take up to five years to completely exchange the water in the two basins that the strait connects, the authors wrote. \u201cTherefore, any pollution here will have severe and serious consequences for marine organisms and the marine ecosystem,\u201d Wang told Mongabay by email.<\/p>\n Wang and his colleagues call for scientific monitoring of oil spills and their impacts. \u201cThis conflict is a global test of whether war-related environmental damage can be addressed through scientific assessment and international action,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n Ebrahimi said that \u201creal-time tracking\u201d is needed. But, he added, they lack environmental baselines from before the war, and years of sanctions have scuttled adherence to environmental standards by Iran\u2019s oil industry. \u201cIn the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d he said, \u201cthe environmental problems did not begin with war.\u201d<\/p>\n For Ebrahimi, the war has revealed how ill-prepared science was for conflict. \u201cPeople around the world see Iran as a country that is always at war,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that is not true actually, because I\u2019m 32, and it is the first war I am seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n That need for a better understanding of how nature is faring in Iran has led conservationists with AvayeBoom to work on a new project documenting the war\u2019s impacts on the Arjan wetland because of its critical role as an international flyway for birds. \u201cIf we want to conserve them, we must be ready, and we were not ready.\u201d<\/p>\n Continuity is important, Farzanegan said: \u201cProblems such as biodiversity loss, water scarcity, air pollution, climate stress, land degradation, and disaster risk do not stop at national borders.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the Persian poet Saadi reminds us,\u201d he added, \u201chuman beings are members of one body. When one part is in pain, the others cannot remain indifferent.\u201d<\/p>\n Rahimi, E., Jahandideh, M., Dong, P., & Ahmadzadeh, F. (2023). Potential anthropogenic and climatic factors affecting Iran\u2019s international wetlands.\u00a0Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences<\/em>,\u00a013<\/em>(4), 557-574. doi:10.1007\/s13412-023-00846-5<\/a><\/p>\n Ebrahimi, I., Dai, R., Kazemi, F., & Seifii, A. (2024). Selecting a flagship species for Arjan International Wetland in Iran.\u00a0Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity<\/em>, 8(4), 364-383. doi:10.5281\/zenodo.13835306<\/a><\/p>\n Wang, Y., Shi, J., Wu, Y., Zhang, W., Yang, X., Lv, H., \u2026 Xu, J. (2023). Selection of flagship species and their use as umbrellas in bird conservation: A case study in Lishui, Zhejiang province, China.\u00a0Animals<\/em>,\u00a013<\/em>(11), 1825. doi:10.3390\/ani13111825<\/a><\/p>\n Bowen-Jones, E., & Entwistle, A. (2002). Identifying appropriate flagship species: The importance of culture and local contexts.\u00a0Oryx<\/em>,\u00a036<\/em>(2), 189-195. doi:10.1017\/s0030605302000261<\/a><\/p>\n Stone, R. (2026). As war escalates, Iran\u2019s universities face increasing fire.\u00a0Science<\/em>, 10. doi:10.1126\/science.aeh8587<\/a><\/p>\n Majdzadeh, R., & Farzanegan, M. R. (2026). Support besieged Iranian scientists.\u00a0Science, 392<\/em>(6797), 473-473. doi:10.1126\/science.aeh3242<\/a><\/p>\n The long environmental shadow of war. (2026).\u00a0Nature Sustainability<\/em>,\u00a09<\/em>(5), 639-639. doi:10.1038\/s41893-026-01857-0<\/a><\/p>\n Wang, H., Liu, P., Feng, L., & Wang, N. (2026). Conflict imperils Middle East marine life.\u00a0Scienc<\/em>e,\u00a0392<\/em>(6798), 586. doi:10.1126\/science.aeh6024<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Maharloo](\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/07\/06104530\/h.-030612-MaharlooLake-IMG_1256-2-scaled.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Connecting<\/strong>\u00a0people to nature<\/strong><\/h2>\n
War and isolation<\/strong><\/h2>\n
War\u2019s \u2018long environmental shadow\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u00a0Citations:<\/strong><\/h2>\n