Wild yellow gentians.

Drawing.

-

Ardea - Mary Evans - Sipa

  • The public prosecutor of Foix orchestrated Thursday a control of the gentians harvesters.

  • The marketing of this plant with many virtues is strictly regulated.

  • The collectors weren't really on the ball.

The bear is not the only protected species to thrive in the Ariège mountains.

There is also the yellow gentian, a wild plant with enormous roots, whose reproduction is not easy since it does not flower for the first time until arriving at the age of 8, then very spaced.

The gentian, which survives the winter, is all the more sought after because it has many virtues: first aperitifs for connoisseurs but also therapeutic, for digestion, to boost the immune system or to give a boost. .

The appetite of industrialists for its roots is not new, nor even its commercialization which has lasted for two hundred years.

But in Ariège, it has been regulated since 2012 by prefectural decree.

It allows certain municipalities to authorize the harvest for a fee.

Agents from the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) monitor activity like milk on the fire and the collectors are not always in the nails.

Several infractions noted

As proof, the vast control operation carried out Thursday in the communes of Ascou and Sorgeat, on judicial requisition of the prosecutor of the Republic of Foix, Laurent Dumaine.

Its aim was "to fight against illegal exploitation of environmental resources in [our] department," said the magistrate in a press release.

In addition to the gendarmes and OFB agents, the collectors saw inspectors from the Ministry of Labor (Direccte) and the Mutualité sociale agricole (MSA) disembark.

“This check was an opportunity to identify several offenses - lack of an employment contract, breach of the prefectural decree, etc.

- and the investigations remain in progress at this stage, in particular in the direction of the employer companies of the controlled persons ”.

Here are the illegal gentian gatherers warned, they are in the crosshairs.

Planet

Pyrenees: The (very official) bear scaring brigade goes into action in Ariège

Planet

Pyrenees: At least ten cubs born this year, rare images of mating captured

  • Traffic

  • Justice

  • Flowers

  • Biodiversity

  • Planet