Anzali International Wetland, in northern Iran in the Middle East, is disappearing. The wetland, which is directly connected to the Caspian Sea, is the largest and most critical aquatic ecosystem in Iran. As a result, it provides a suitable habitat for various species, especially as wintering and breeding areas for one hundred thousand waterbirds from different parts of the world.

In the last few decades, the wetland has been threatened by construction projects without environmental assessment, such as railways, breakwaters, and ring-belt projects, which have had adverse impacts on the depth of the wetland's water body. Due to a significant drop in water levels, the wetland was placed on the Montreux Record of Wetlands in 1993. Additionally, pollution, sediments, a decline in the Caspian Sea's water level, unsustainable hunting, and inappropriate tourism have put the wetland's existence in jeopardy, resulting in its desiccation and destruction. These problems are exacerbated by deliberate fires set by profiteers to facilitate land use changes.

The destruction trend of the wetland has rapidly intensified as a consequence of fast industrialization and urbanization in the watershed. Discharging pollutants into the wetland, which eventually flow into the Caspian Sea, exacerbates the problem further. According to FAO estimates, the sediment load discharged by the 10 major rivers into the wetland has reduced its depth from 6 meters to below 1 m. Wetland desiccation in turn impacts inhabitants, causing depleted fish stocks, social tensions, poverty, and compulsory displacement.
The lives of inhabitants have been adversely affected by the Anzali Wetland Crisis. The devastating effects of the degradation of the wetland have challenged the regional-scale ecological balance, ecosystem function, public health, and local economy. Disappeared areas of the wetland with one and a half million people in the Middle East are now quite a distance from their heyday.
As a whole, Anzali Wetland is an inseparable part of the collective identity of the people who are witnessing the rapid disappearance of this social memory with their own eyes every moment.