The Role of Wild Plants in Cultural Restoration

Community Collaboration and Engaged Ethnobotany in the Nineveh Plains, Northern Iraq

Bibliographic Data

ID8922401
AuthorsSarah Osterhoudt (0000-0002-0205-9466, Indiana University Bloomington, corresponding author), Katherine S Eddens (0000-0002-7783-4156, Indiana University Bloomington), Zubeida S Abdulkhaliq (0000-0001-7972-5722, University of Duhok), Remonda Eshaya Armia (0009-0001-9632-0791, University of Duhok), Honar Mahdi (0000-0002-8864-0031, University of Duhok), Honar Safar Mahdi, Ahmed Mahmood (0000-0002-7340-4175, University of Duhok), Hassan Muhamed (0000-0001-7624-0316, University of Duhok)
Year2024
Volume78
Issue2
Pages109-125
Publication date2024-05-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomic Botany (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0001 • E-ISSN: 1874-9364
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s12231-024-09607-z
OpenAlexW4398249921
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited27

The Nineveh Plain region of Northern Iraq is a site of ecological and cultural diversity. Between 2014 and 2017, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as Daesh, severely disrupted the region, resulting in community displacement, particularly for members of ethnic minority groups. This article highlights an ongoing multinational, multidisciplinary collaboration between botanists, ecologists, mental and public health specialists, sociologists, and anthropologists to foster cultural and ecological restoration among the Christian, Yezidi, Shabak, Turkman, and Kaka’i minority groups of the Plains. Members of these groups identified wild plant collection as an important cultural and economic practice and expressed a shared concern over the decreased access to wild plant resources. Researchers are partnering with local communities using engaged, decolonial methodologies to bring communities together around this shared interest in wild plants. Project activities include producing videos highlighting local plant knowledge, hosting workshops on using wild plants for art and textile design, offering trainings on herbal medicine, collecting recipes for a wild plant cookbook, and increasing awareness of the sustainable use of wild plants. Through collaborative knowledge production, this partnership aims to bring diverse stakeholders together around an interest in wild plants to promote cultural understanding and exchange

Agroforestry · Biology · Botany · Economic botany · Edible plants · Ethnobotany · Geography · Medicinal plants · Plant ecology · Ecology · Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants Studies · Forestry

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