WPG Manuscripts
The Role of Wild Plants in Cultural Restoration: Community Collaboration and Engaged Ethnobotany in the Nineveh Plains, Northern Iraq
The Role of Wild Plants in Cultural Restoration: Community Collaboration and Engaged Ethnobotany in the Nineveh Plains, Northern Iraq
Abstract: 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.