Medicinal plant trade and opportunities for sustainable management in the Cape Peninsula, South Africa

[摘要] Medicinal plants represent an important asset to the livelihoods of many people indeveloping countries. This is the case for South Africa where most of the rural and also urbancommunities rely on medicinal plants for their primary healthcare needs and income generation.Harvesting for domestic usage is not generally detrimental to the wild populations of medicinalplants. However, the shift from subsistence to commercial harvesting is posing unprecedentedextinction threat to the wild populations of medicinal plants. The purpose of this investigationwas to: (1) document the most traded/used species of medicinal plants in the Cape Peninsula,including parts used, sourcing regions, harvesting frequencies and seasons as well as theconservation status of these species; (2) to profile and investigate the rationales for theinvolvement of stakeholders in medicinal plants related-activities; and to (3) assess constraintsand opportunities for sustainable management of medicinal plants in the Cape Peninsula.Triangulation techniques such as semi-structured questionnaires, formal and informalinteractions with key informants from the Cape Peninsula and surroundings, personalobservations and field visits were used to gather relevant data for this investigation.Accordingly, about 170 medicinal plant species were found to be actively traded or usedin the study area. These species were mostly traded/used for their underground parts; shoot,barks and in many cases the whole plant is uprooted. The bulk of traded/used species were fromthe wild populations, harvested on monthly basis and the Western and Eastern Cape provincesacted as the main source regions. Some of the traded/used species are rare, vulnerable,endangered, critically endangered and are declining from the wild. Nonetheless, there aresubtitutes for some of these medicinal plant species. Traders and collectors were mainly men inthe Cape Peninsula. Cultural considerations, economic conditions and the burden imposed by thenumber of dependents were the factors influencing local communities to engage in medicinalplants related-activities.Despite the fact that the majority of the informants acknowledged the decline ofmedicinal plants from wild stocks, an overwhelming number of them expected an upsurge in thefuture demand for natural remedy due to its popularity among South Africans. Similarly, themajority of the respondents were aware of the conservation status of the plants that they wereusing, but this did not prevent them from trading/using some protected species. Encouragingly,an overwhelming number of the informants were willing to use cultivated species and cultivatesome of the most used medicinal plant species if seeds and land were freely provided. It isnoteworthy that these results were influenced by the gender, age, category and time ofinvolvement in medicinal plants, ethnicity and residence status of the respondents as well as thesource of supply of medicinal plants. It is recommended that species that have been identified ofconcern should be prevented from further commercial harvesting. Competent conservationorganizations like CapeNature should focus on practical skills development of people who haveexpressed willingness to cultivate medicinal plants or are already doing so, especially in plantpropagation and basic gardening techniques.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University