“We get up at 6 o'clock in the morning, and we have our chores to do. We come down and collect the spring plants, take our share, and take them back wet and fresh for dinner,” explained Mariyam Salih, a villager, to Rudaw’s Sazgar Salah on Friday.
Throughout the spring season, numerous villagers delve into the cultivation and harvesting of various plants as a means of income generation.
Bakhtiar Ali, the director of the Malakawa organization for environmental protection, stated that “For many years, we have been stressing the importance of protecting and treating spring plants well because they are important and valuable. Villagers should harvest them scientifically and conscientiously.”
Aside from the act of uprooting plants itself, digging too deep in order to harvest them and leaving holes in the ground after having done it, can harm the soil and disrupt the ecosystem, upsetting the natural balance and making the environment more vulnerable, impacting not only the area in question but also the overall health of the surrounding ecosystem.
