The Mesopotamian marshlands of southern Iraq, believed to be home to the "Garden of Eden", are showing renewed signs of life after serious damage dealt to them during the reign of the ousted Saddam Hussein.

Shortly after the end of the Hussein regime in 2003, the land's native tribe known as Marsh Arabs returned to the area and destroyed the dams built there in an effort to re-flood the region. They managed to salvage almost 20 percent of the land, New Scientist reported.

Lush wetlands that covered 15,000 sq km of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq were once home to millions of varieties of native and migratory birds, as well as the Marsh Arabs who fished and grazed water buffaloes here for over 5,000 years.

But in the 1990's, 90 percent of the area was destroyed by diversion of water for irrigation - and by deliberate draining of water on the orders of Saddam Hussein in retaliation for the Marsh Arabs' uprising after the first Gulf War.  

"Immediately after re-flooding, we saw just a dozen birds in the marshes. A year later, there were hundreds and now they are talking about thousands," said Curtis Richardson of Duke University, US, who has been monitoring the marshland along with colleagues from Canada's University of Waterloo, Iraq's University of Basra and the Iraq Foundation.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Barry Warner from the University of Waterloo said that plants have begun to thrive there again. "We're getting a formidable response in newly re-flooded areas."

However, scientists are warning that the most important part for continued recovery - the northwest Al Hawizeh marsh - faces a new threat as the Iranian government plans to build a dyke on its border with Iraq that will divert its water away.

"It will cut off a vast amount of water and remove some of the recovering marshes," Richardson said, adding that the marsh was crucial to reseeding the other areas.

According to him, it will be impossible to restore the marshlands entirely, but 30 percent can be salvaged.