PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN
BOTSWANA:
THE CASE OF HARPAGOPHYTUM PROCUMBENS.DC1
TEBOGO MALTHARE2
ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants have been the basis of traditional health care, especially in remote areas where modern health facilities were inadequate. The wide spread provision of health facilities in Botswana and the dilution of local traditions with foreign ones have in the past resulted in a reduction in the use of traditional medicines. The discovery of therapeutic prowess of medicinal plants such as grapple has once again picked the popularity of traditional medicines locally and abroad. This paper takes a case of a
well-known and respected medicinal plant, grapples and discusses its traditional utilization and implications on conservation. Information on traditional practices involving the grapple plant was obtained from the rural communities through routine workshops by TL's extension service. The conventional methods of protecting and conserving medicinal plants are also discussed. An overview of institutions and policy issues that are geared towards the protection of medicinal plants is given with some ideas about the possible actions that could be taken to ensure a bright future for medicinal plants and traditional medicines.
INTRODUCTION
The rural communities are the most hard hit by poverty, especially the female headed households. People depend on agricultural activities for food and some form of employment. Agriculture itself is highly unreliable due to poor soils, unpredictable rains and recurrent droughts. Drought relief programmes that are usually brought in to assist the people to survive the scourge are also unreliable as they depend on whether a particular year has been declared a drought year. In an effort to satisfy their needs for alternative sources of livelihoods the rural people turn to their immediate environment for free natural resources.
The environment of Botswana hosts an impressive diversity and abundance of wild plants that are useful as food, medicines, crafts etc. The words 'veld products' are often used to describe all these plants. The utilization of veld products is usually in the form of harvesting in the wild and selling to urban and peri-urban dwellers. The commercialization of wild plants, including medicinal, is believed to compromise their conservation. Depletion of some plants has been observed in areas where commercial exploitation has been going on for a long time.
The harvesting and utilization of medicinal plants is at times haphazard since they can be obtained from communal areas at will. The depletion of these resources can be attributed to too much harvesting pressure as well as negligent harvesting practices. The responsibility of protecting medicinal plants as well as other indigenous plants lies primarily with the government. The government cannot possibly make people responsible for their own resources if they themselves do not feel that way. Matters relating to medicinal plants cut across various ministries within government. Medicinal plants do occupy a small part of natural resources and they are sometimes referred to only as 'other plants'.
Information on the availability and distribution of medicinal plants is not documented. There have not been efforts to design means of collecting indigenous knowledge about medicinal plants from various sources. Traditional healers are often accused of being secretive about the medicinal plants that they know of. At the same time some argue that the doctors have ethics to follow inorder to protect their practice.
Following the observed depletion of grapple the Government of Botswana (GoB) declared the plant protected only to be harvested by permit holders. This strategy seemed not to be very effective as the resources continued to dwindle. The strategy certainly needed support from the resource users and stakeholders like NGOs.
Thusano Lefatsheng (TL) was found in 1984 with the aim of assisting the rural communities to sustainably utilize their natural resources for their livelihood. TL views domestication of veld resources like medicinal plants as being one viable solution to the problem of over-exploitation. TL hopes to achieve this by developing sustainable techniques for the cultivation at home and harvesting them in the wild and extending these to rural communities. TL takes on board those plant species used for food and medicinal purposes (veld products) that have also been identified as having commercial potential. TL is currently working on the domestication of grapple (Harpagophytum procumbens, DC), Lippia javanica, Lippia scaberrima, Artemisia affra and several indigenous fruits and trees.
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF THE GRAPPLE PLANT
(HARPAGOPHYTUM PROCUMBENS, DC)
The grapple plant is also known as the Kalahari Devil's Claw and Sengaprile in Setswana, the national language of Botswana. The Secondary roots of the plant have been used in traditional medicine in Botswana for a long time as a broad spectrum drug against a variety of illnesses including skin cancer, facilitation of smooth delivery, kidney malfunction, etc. It is often taken as a medicine for general good health. There is a rumour among womenfolk that grapple medicine renders birth control pills from clinics ineffective since some women have fallen pregnant after drinking it while on the pill. Grapple is also believed by men to act as an aphrodisiac. This is because it 'cleanses' the blood therefore improving circulation in the body. The roots of grapple are dried and crushed into granules. Boiling water is added and left to infuse overnight. The following morning the liquid is decanted and the resulting portion drunk in three equal portions throughout the day.
In order to understand why the plant was so popular the active ingredients of the drug were isolated in Europe and proven effective against arthritis and rheumatism (Moss, 1981). Pharmacological studies that have been carried out on the extracts of the roots showed that the drug had anti-inflammatory and slightly analgesic effects. Positive results were achieved especially in chronic models of inflammation, for example in formaldehyde-athritis of the white rat.
Following the discovery of the attractive therapeutic properties of grapple the plant became popular in some European countries, particularly Germany, and it has been exported out of Southern Africa for decades. Most of the early exports came from Namibia and alot of it still does. At a later time, Botswana joined the trade, a move which resulted in over-exploitation of the resource. The popularity of grapple has since spread to the Far East where most of the grapple roots exported from Botswana end up.
PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION OF HARPAGOPHYTUM PROCUMBENS, DC
Botswana has a long standing tradition of conserving resources. This may be seen in the large areas of range land that support large livestock populations of the country. In these areas are also various plant species including medicinal ones that are used by the local people for their own needs. Before medicinal plants such as grapple had price tags on them, their protection and/or conservation was ensured, inadvertently by the fact that only traditional healers harvested them. The few number of healers in any given locality meant that the plants were rarely under serious harvesting pressure. The traditional doctors had their own rules of the practice to follow, which in a way did protect the plants they used. Information on what plants were used and how to cure whatever illnesses was not readily given out to those outside the practice.
Traditional doctors have a habit of giving their medicines names that are different from those of the plant from which they obtained them. The prescribed drug made out of grapple roots would be called makgonatsotlhe (that fixes all illnesses or broad spectrum of drug) instead of being called sengaparile. This way only those belonging to the practice and maybe a few more could know what plants were being used as medicines. There are rules also that had to be followed when digging the roots. The harvester should make sure that his/her shadow is not cast above the hole that contains the roots. Otherwise the resulting drug would be rendered useless. The implication of this superstitious "rule of the practice" is not very clear. One could imagine, however, that the harvester needs some light in the hole so that he/she can see whether they is harvesting the right stuff.
In grapple if the parent tuber is cut during harvesting then that lessens the chance of the plant to regenerate in the next season. There are those who believe that there are male and female grapple plants. When they go out harvesting they would look for plants that they believe are male because the females are believed to be weak. Biologically the grapple flowers are bisexual and out crossing. The implication is that a traditional doctor would not go out in the wilderness and harvest every grapple plant he/she comes across and this indeed saves some plants which would produce seeds to propagate others.
The traditional protection and conservation strategies have been effective until the grapple plant was commercialized in the early 1970s. Those who were interested in buying the resource publicized information about the plant and its commercial value. Harvesting pressure on the resources led to its disappearance in certain areas. Ecological studies conducted revealed that the areas most affected were Kgalagadi South and Kweneng West (Sekhwela, 1994). Both these areas were first to harvest and sell the grapple in Botswana. In order to protect the resource the government of Botswana instituted stringent measures. The grapple plant was declared protected only to be harvested with a permit. The harvesting season is also limited from April through June. The legal protection seemed not to have helped much since the resource continued to dwindle (Mbewe, 1993). Harvesters now have to walk long distances on foot or even on donkey backs. At times people have to camp out for a few days in order to increase their harvest.
Thusano Lefatsheng (TL), a local rural development NGO stood up to take the challenge of ensuring the conservation of the grapple plant. TL conservation of medicinal plants from a sustainable utilization perspective. Ecologically friendly harvesting methods have been developed and are continuously tried inorder to protect the wild populations. At the same time optimum agronomic practices are developed, to be extended to the communities to assist them in cultivating the plant at home. This way the pressure of harvesting on the plants in the wild will be reduced as more people take up cultivation. With better management applied on the domestic crop the producers should hope for higher yields and therefore greater economic returns. TL also proposed to the establishment of grapple management areas, which will be a step towards conservation. Such areas will be accessible to researchers and members of the community for purposes of continuing studies on the survival of the plant.
The root system of grapple consists of two types of roots. The primary root which grows vertically downwards into the soil. This is responsible for the regeneration and survival of the plant, hence, the parent tuber. There are several secondary roots that grow laterally from the parent tuber in search for food and water in areas where their parent cannot reach. These are the roots that contain the medicine and on harvesting it is advisable to harvest only the secondary roots and leave the parent one intact. If by mistake the parent tuber is uprooted the harvesters are advised to bury it again and it has a chance of regenerating although it will take long now to produce more secondary tubers. These are the techniques that TL is advising the rural communities about.
Each year before digging can begin, assessments are carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture and Thusano Lefatsheng to ascertain the availability of the resource. After quantitative analysis the Ministry of Agriculture is able to direct the harvesting in terms of the areas and the number of people who can be allowed to harvest. The Ministry of Agriculture is able to suspend harvesting of the grapple in a particular community if there isn't enough resource. The plants are thus given a chance to regenerate and produce more tubers to be harvested in the future.
The interventions by government and NGOS like TL seems not to encourage participation of the resource users in designing the conservation strategies. The assessments do not have input from the people and so is the quota management. The 25kg harvest limited stipulated in the permit is the same per everyone everywhere. The people come in at the end to queue up for harvesting permits. Such strategies could benefit a lot from people's knowledge. There are no procedures to deal with those who harvest too much maybe because the authority does not work with the village leaders.
INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK ANALYSIS
The overall responsibility of protecting and conserving medicinal plants cut across several ministries. The department of Crop Production and Forestry of the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for the use of agricultural land and forestry resources. The department aims at increasing agricultural production without compromising the protection of the environment. The Agricultural Resources Board (ARB) of the Ministry of Agriculture has authority over the exploitation of the grapple plant and other protected plants. Permits for harvesting grapple are issued by the board and it also makes decisions on where harvesting could be done.
The National Conservation Strategy (NCS) was formed in 1990 and it manifests the GOB'S commitment to sustainable development of a wide range of natural resources. It derives largely from the concerns that many of the natural resources, like some medicinal plants, are under threat of over-exploitation. Some of the conservation goals of the strategy are the protection of endangered species and distribution of incomes and rewards more equitably. The NCS is working towards increasing the effectiveness with which natural resources were used in order to optimize the environmental and economic benefits while minimizing the harmful environmental side effects.
The NCS agency is currently drafting a curriculum for environmental education in Botswana. The chemistry department of the University of Botswana is carrying out research on various medicinal plants including grapple. There is interest within the National Institute of Research and Documentation in the ecology and socio-economics of indigenous plants including medicinal. There is interest as well at the Botswana College of Agriculture in the agronomy and economics of grapple and other indigenous plants that are enlisted for domestication. With more research and documentation on medicinal plants a better understanding from the general public is expected to result in more participation in conservation initiatives.
The national herbarium is entrusted with the responsibility of, among other things, identifying and collecting indigenous plant species. These may be maintained as live specimen in the gardens or as mounted for reservation and records. The National Bio-diversity Authority was established recently after ratification of the convention of Biological diversity. The authority is representation from nearly all government ministries, NGOs, parastatals and the private sector. Its mission is to spearhead the implementation of the conservation in Botswana and to liaise with similar institutions in other countries.
It is encouraging to note that steps are being taken to protect the natural environments. There is danger, however, that the established institutions will pay more attention to seemingly large environmental projects such as water pollution, waste management etc, at the expense of indigenous plant use which are more important at the grassroots level.
The Botswana Dingaka Association was formed in the early nineties as a result of an outcry from traditional healers. The traditional herbalists were not recognized by the government and, in fact, there were cases of publicly campaigning against visiting "witch doctors". The Association was formed to professionalise the practice and to be more transparent towards the general public.
There are several pieces of legislature that the government has put into place in the interest of protection and conservation of natural resources. For the purpose of this paper the ones worth noting include the Tribal Land Act of 1993 which provides for the establishment of the land boards. The boards are charged with the responsibility of allocating land and over-seeing its use in tribal areas. Grazing land in tribal/communal areas are usually overstocked leading to range land degradation.
The Agricultural Resources Conservation Act provides for the conservation of soil, water, vegetation and animals. The Forestry Acts aims at protecting forestry resources. The Forestry Policy that is being drafted by MOA aims at developing sustainable forest management options based on social ecological principles. This policy will recognize medicinal plants as important components of forest systems. The herbage preservation act provides for prevention of veld fires that destroy vegetation.
DISCUSSION
There is a vast resource of knowledge about the indigenous medicinal plants and their uses scattered around different sources. The most important source is the old folks who may of may not be traditional healers or herbalists. Parts of medicinal plants can be seen at every market in urban and peri-urban centres these days. Only the harvesters would know whether these parts were obtained from the mother plants in friendly ways. Traditional healers are now becoming more professional and organized making it easier to approach if only to seek information. It should be recognized, however, that what knowledge these people have did not trickle into their minds in a passive manner but that they made efforts to attain it. Under such circumstances traditional herbalists may not be blamed for being stingy with what they know in relation to medicinal plants and their uses. There is no evidence to suggest that depletion of grapple was there before the plant was commercialized which would have implicated traditional healers.
The case of grapple serves to alert us as to the possible fate of medicinal plants that are currently being exploited, especially for commercial purposes. The steps taken to protect grapple could have been much more effective if they had been more preventive than curative. This case has also shown that legal protection is not an end in itself but only a means to an end. There is tendency for people to look at whatever the law seeks to protect as belonging to the government and not themselves. This sometimes gives people the pleasure of breaking the law in question just to cheat the government. Decentralization of the controls on the utilization of natural resources could assist in cultivating a sense of ownership and responsibility.
The conservation through domestication approach that is being promoted by TL is based on some critical assumptions. The strategy assumes that the market for indigenous medicinal plants will continue to grow to absorb the products from the producers. Adoption of the strategy by traditional healers would be desirable. Traditional healers are known not to use domesticated plants, or even those that grow near inhabited areas for their work. The strategy is aimed at benefiting the rural communities who may not have the required resources to take up the cultivation of medicinal plants and other veld resources. It is assumed that these people will be able to receive assistance from the government such as that received by the producers of the conventional food crops. The experience at TL is with grapple, a creeping herbaceous plant, and three herbal teas; Lippia javanica, L scaberrima and Artemisia affra. A lot of traditional medicines however are obtained from roots of large trees such as Acaia karoo and Dischrostachys cineria.
The protection and conservation of medicinal plants does not take high priority on the agenda for natural resources management. Government programmes gives priority to agricultural and wildlife resources. This is mainly due to the identified potential of such resources in contributing positively to national development. On the other hand, it could be that there is so much information about agricultural, forestry and wildlife resources as compared to medicinal plants. This allows programmes to be developed for those systems that are better understood. The area of medicinal plants is left alone as a niche for traditional doctors. Institutions that are involved with medicinal plants such as the national herbarium do not receive as much support as the others do.
The forestry policy in draft promises in specific terms to look into the issues of protection in conservation of medicinal plants. It is important that the policy be made up of ideas from the people who use the resources. The policy should provide for the formulation of strategies that puts the control of resources into the hands of the communities.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The value of traditional medicines is gaining recognition in conventional health care locally and abroad. The markets created for medicinal plants around the world results in high harvesting pressure on the plants, thereby compromising their ability to regenerate hence resource depletion. The future of medicinal plants in Botswana depends on positive steps being taken to protect and conserve the resources before it is too late. The case of grapple bears testimony to this. There is alot that could be learnt from the traditional methods of conserving resources of great value if only strategies for obtaining such knowledge could be investigated and put to work.
The value of knowledge that indigenous people like herbalists and community leaders have needs to be recognized and perhaps rewarded by those who benefit from it one way or the other. Institutional reforms are necessary in order that conservation problems of medicinal plants can be addressed more directly instead of dealing with them as a single paragraph in a whole book. Emergence of institutions like the Bio-diversity Authority and the Botswana Dingaka Association should be strengthened to adequately deal with the issues that are important at grassroots level. The capacity of learning institutions like the University of Botswana, the National Institute for Research and Documentation, the Botswana college of Agriculture and the Institute of Health Sciences should be increased so as to take more on board in terms of research and documentation on medicinal plants and their uses.
REFERENCES
Mbewe, M.N., (1992) 'The Distribution, Utilization and Conservation of Some Under-Utilized Plant Genetic Resources in Botswana'. Paper presented at National Workshop on Plant Genetic Resources, Gaborone Sun, Gaborone, Botswana. June 23 - 26, 1992
Mbewe, M.N., (1993) Conservation and Utilization of Food and Medicinal Plants in Botswana. In de Boef, W., Amanor, K., Wellard, K., and Bennington, A (eds) cultivating knowledge. CGN/ODI/WAU/IT Publications. London, UK.
Moss, H. And Taylor, F.W., (1981) The potential for commercial utilisation of veld products. Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Botswana. Government Printer, Gaborone, Botswana.
Sekhwela, M.B.M., (1994) Grapple Plants (Harpagophytum procumbens, DC). Resource Potential and Management Studies. Final Report of the Consultancy for TL and NRMP.
Taylor, F.W., (1981) Commercial Utilization of Indigenous Plants in Botswana in Wickens, G.E., Goodin, J.R. and Field, D.V. (eds) Plants for Arid Lands.
THE CASE OF HARPAGOPHYTUM PROCUMBENS.DC1
TEBOGO MALTHARE2
ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants have been the basis of traditional health care, especially in remote areas where modern health facilities were inadequate. The wide spread provision of health facilities in Botswana and the dilution of local traditions with foreign ones have in the past resulted in a reduction in the use of traditional medicines. The discovery of therapeutic prowess of medicinal plants such as grapple has once again picked the popularity of traditional medicines locally and abroad. This paper takes a case of a
well-known and respected medicinal plant, grapples and discusses its traditional utilization and implications on conservation. Information on traditional practices involving the grapple plant was obtained from the rural communities through routine workshops by TL's extension service. The conventional methods of protecting and conserving medicinal plants are also discussed. An overview of institutions and policy issues that are geared towards the protection of medicinal plants is given with some ideas about the possible actions that could be taken to ensure a bright future for medicinal plants and traditional medicines.
INTRODUCTION
The rural communities are the most hard hit by poverty, especially the female headed households. People depend on agricultural activities for food and some form of employment. Agriculture itself is highly unreliable due to poor soils, unpredictable rains and recurrent droughts. Drought relief programmes that are usually brought in to assist the people to survive the scourge are also unreliable as they depend on whether a particular year has been declared a drought year. In an effort to satisfy their needs for alternative sources of livelihoods the rural people turn to their immediate environment for free natural resources.
The environment of Botswana hosts an impressive diversity and abundance of wild plants that are useful as food, medicines, crafts etc. The words 'veld products' are often used to describe all these plants. The utilization of veld products is usually in the form of harvesting in the wild and selling to urban and peri-urban dwellers. The commercialization of wild plants, including medicinal, is believed to compromise their conservation. Depletion of some plants has been observed in areas where commercial exploitation has been going on for a long time.
The harvesting and utilization of medicinal plants is at times haphazard since they can be obtained from communal areas at will. The depletion of these resources can be attributed to too much harvesting pressure as well as negligent harvesting practices. The responsibility of protecting medicinal plants as well as other indigenous plants lies primarily with the government. The government cannot possibly make people responsible for their own resources if they themselves do not feel that way. Matters relating to medicinal plants cut across various ministries within government. Medicinal plants do occupy a small part of natural resources and they are sometimes referred to only as 'other plants'.
Information on the availability and distribution of medicinal plants is not documented. There have not been efforts to design means of collecting indigenous knowledge about medicinal plants from various sources. Traditional healers are often accused of being secretive about the medicinal plants that they know of. At the same time some argue that the doctors have ethics to follow inorder to protect their practice.
Following the observed depletion of grapple the Government of Botswana (GoB) declared the plant protected only to be harvested by permit holders. This strategy seemed not to be very effective as the resources continued to dwindle. The strategy certainly needed support from the resource users and stakeholders like NGOs.
Thusano Lefatsheng (TL) was found in 1984 with the aim of assisting the rural communities to sustainably utilize their natural resources for their livelihood. TL views domestication of veld resources like medicinal plants as being one viable solution to the problem of over-exploitation. TL hopes to achieve this by developing sustainable techniques for the cultivation at home and harvesting them in the wild and extending these to rural communities. TL takes on board those plant species used for food and medicinal purposes (veld products) that have also been identified as having commercial potential. TL is currently working on the domestication of grapple (Harpagophytum procumbens, DC), Lippia javanica, Lippia scaberrima, Artemisia affra and several indigenous fruits and trees.
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF THE GRAPPLE PLANT
(HARPAGOPHYTUM PROCUMBENS, DC)
The grapple plant is also known as the Kalahari Devil's Claw and Sengaprile in Setswana, the national language of Botswana. The Secondary roots of the plant have been used in traditional medicine in Botswana for a long time as a broad spectrum drug against a variety of illnesses including skin cancer, facilitation of smooth delivery, kidney malfunction, etc. It is often taken as a medicine for general good health. There is a rumour among womenfolk that grapple medicine renders birth control pills from clinics ineffective since some women have fallen pregnant after drinking it while on the pill. Grapple is also believed by men to act as an aphrodisiac. This is because it 'cleanses' the blood therefore improving circulation in the body. The roots of grapple are dried and crushed into granules. Boiling water is added and left to infuse overnight. The following morning the liquid is decanted and the resulting portion drunk in three equal portions throughout the day.
In order to understand why the plant was so popular the active ingredients of the drug were isolated in Europe and proven effective against arthritis and rheumatism (Moss, 1981). Pharmacological studies that have been carried out on the extracts of the roots showed that the drug had anti-inflammatory and slightly analgesic effects. Positive results were achieved especially in chronic models of inflammation, for example in formaldehyde-athritis of the white rat.
Following the discovery of the attractive therapeutic properties of grapple the plant became popular in some European countries, particularly Germany, and it has been exported out of Southern Africa for decades. Most of the early exports came from Namibia and alot of it still does. At a later time, Botswana joined the trade, a move which resulted in over-exploitation of the resource. The popularity of grapple has since spread to the Far East where most of the grapple roots exported from Botswana end up.
PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION OF HARPAGOPHYTUM PROCUMBENS, DC
Botswana has a long standing tradition of conserving resources. This may be seen in the large areas of range land that support large livestock populations of the country. In these areas are also various plant species including medicinal ones that are used by the local people for their own needs. Before medicinal plants such as grapple had price tags on them, their protection and/or conservation was ensured, inadvertently by the fact that only traditional healers harvested them. The few number of healers in any given locality meant that the plants were rarely under serious harvesting pressure. The traditional doctors had their own rules of the practice to follow, which in a way did protect the plants they used. Information on what plants were used and how to cure whatever illnesses was not readily given out to those outside the practice.
Traditional doctors have a habit of giving their medicines names that are different from those of the plant from which they obtained them. The prescribed drug made out of grapple roots would be called makgonatsotlhe (that fixes all illnesses or broad spectrum of drug) instead of being called sengaparile. This way only those belonging to the practice and maybe a few more could know what plants were being used as medicines. There are rules also that had to be followed when digging the roots. The harvester should make sure that his/her shadow is not cast above the hole that contains the roots. Otherwise the resulting drug would be rendered useless. The implication of this superstitious "rule of the practice" is not very clear. One could imagine, however, that the harvester needs some light in the hole so that he/she can see whether they is harvesting the right stuff.
In grapple if the parent tuber is cut during harvesting then that lessens the chance of the plant to regenerate in the next season. There are those who believe that there are male and female grapple plants. When they go out harvesting they would look for plants that they believe are male because the females are believed to be weak. Biologically the grapple flowers are bisexual and out crossing. The implication is that a traditional doctor would not go out in the wilderness and harvest every grapple plant he/she comes across and this indeed saves some plants which would produce seeds to propagate others.
The traditional protection and conservation strategies have been effective until the grapple plant was commercialized in the early 1970s. Those who were interested in buying the resource publicized information about the plant and its commercial value. Harvesting pressure on the resources led to its disappearance in certain areas. Ecological studies conducted revealed that the areas most affected were Kgalagadi South and Kweneng West (Sekhwela, 1994). Both these areas were first to harvest and sell the grapple in Botswana. In order to protect the resource the government of Botswana instituted stringent measures. The grapple plant was declared protected only to be harvested with a permit. The harvesting season is also limited from April through June. The legal protection seemed not to have helped much since the resource continued to dwindle (Mbewe, 1993). Harvesters now have to walk long distances on foot or even on donkey backs. At times people have to camp out for a few days in order to increase their harvest.
Thusano Lefatsheng (TL), a local rural development NGO stood up to take the challenge of ensuring the conservation of the grapple plant. TL conservation of medicinal plants from a sustainable utilization perspective. Ecologically friendly harvesting methods have been developed and are continuously tried inorder to protect the wild populations. At the same time optimum agronomic practices are developed, to be extended to the communities to assist them in cultivating the plant at home. This way the pressure of harvesting on the plants in the wild will be reduced as more people take up cultivation. With better management applied on the domestic crop the producers should hope for higher yields and therefore greater economic returns. TL also proposed to the establishment of grapple management areas, which will be a step towards conservation. Such areas will be accessible to researchers and members of the community for purposes of continuing studies on the survival of the plant.
The root system of grapple consists of two types of roots. The primary root which grows vertically downwards into the soil. This is responsible for the regeneration and survival of the plant, hence, the parent tuber. There are several secondary roots that grow laterally from the parent tuber in search for food and water in areas where their parent cannot reach. These are the roots that contain the medicine and on harvesting it is advisable to harvest only the secondary roots and leave the parent one intact. If by mistake the parent tuber is uprooted the harvesters are advised to bury it again and it has a chance of regenerating although it will take long now to produce more secondary tubers. These are the techniques that TL is advising the rural communities about.
Each year before digging can begin, assessments are carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture and Thusano Lefatsheng to ascertain the availability of the resource. After quantitative analysis the Ministry of Agriculture is able to direct the harvesting in terms of the areas and the number of people who can be allowed to harvest. The Ministry of Agriculture is able to suspend harvesting of the grapple in a particular community if there isn't enough resource. The plants are thus given a chance to regenerate and produce more tubers to be harvested in the future.
The interventions by government and NGOS like TL seems not to encourage participation of the resource users in designing the conservation strategies. The assessments do not have input from the people and so is the quota management. The 25kg harvest limited stipulated in the permit is the same per everyone everywhere. The people come in at the end to queue up for harvesting permits. Such strategies could benefit a lot from people's knowledge. There are no procedures to deal with those who harvest too much maybe because the authority does not work with the village leaders.
INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK ANALYSIS
The overall responsibility of protecting and conserving medicinal plants cut across several ministries. The department of Crop Production and Forestry of the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for the use of agricultural land and forestry resources. The department aims at increasing agricultural production without compromising the protection of the environment. The Agricultural Resources Board (ARB) of the Ministry of Agriculture has authority over the exploitation of the grapple plant and other protected plants. Permits for harvesting grapple are issued by the board and it also makes decisions on where harvesting could be done.
The National Conservation Strategy (NCS) was formed in 1990 and it manifests the GOB'S commitment to sustainable development of a wide range of natural resources. It derives largely from the concerns that many of the natural resources, like some medicinal plants, are under threat of over-exploitation. Some of the conservation goals of the strategy are the protection of endangered species and distribution of incomes and rewards more equitably. The NCS is working towards increasing the effectiveness with which natural resources were used in order to optimize the environmental and economic benefits while minimizing the harmful environmental side effects.
The NCS agency is currently drafting a curriculum for environmental education in Botswana. The chemistry department of the University of Botswana is carrying out research on various medicinal plants including grapple. There is interest within the National Institute of Research and Documentation in the ecology and socio-economics of indigenous plants including medicinal. There is interest as well at the Botswana College of Agriculture in the agronomy and economics of grapple and other indigenous plants that are enlisted for domestication. With more research and documentation on medicinal plants a better understanding from the general public is expected to result in more participation in conservation initiatives.
The national herbarium is entrusted with the responsibility of, among other things, identifying and collecting indigenous plant species. These may be maintained as live specimen in the gardens or as mounted for reservation and records. The National Bio-diversity Authority was established recently after ratification of the convention of Biological diversity. The authority is representation from nearly all government ministries, NGOs, parastatals and the private sector. Its mission is to spearhead the implementation of the conservation in Botswana and to liaise with similar institutions in other countries.
It is encouraging to note that steps are being taken to protect the natural environments. There is danger, however, that the established institutions will pay more attention to seemingly large environmental projects such as water pollution, waste management etc, at the expense of indigenous plant use which are more important at the grassroots level.
The Botswana Dingaka Association was formed in the early nineties as a result of an outcry from traditional healers. The traditional herbalists were not recognized by the government and, in fact, there were cases of publicly campaigning against visiting "witch doctors". The Association was formed to professionalise the practice and to be more transparent towards the general public.
There are several pieces of legislature that the government has put into place in the interest of protection and conservation of natural resources. For the purpose of this paper the ones worth noting include the Tribal Land Act of 1993 which provides for the establishment of the land boards. The boards are charged with the responsibility of allocating land and over-seeing its use in tribal areas. Grazing land in tribal/communal areas are usually overstocked leading to range land degradation.
The Agricultural Resources Conservation Act provides for the conservation of soil, water, vegetation and animals. The Forestry Acts aims at protecting forestry resources. The Forestry Policy that is being drafted by MOA aims at developing sustainable forest management options based on social ecological principles. This policy will recognize medicinal plants as important components of forest systems. The herbage preservation act provides for prevention of veld fires that destroy vegetation.
DISCUSSION
There is a vast resource of knowledge about the indigenous medicinal plants and their uses scattered around different sources. The most important source is the old folks who may of may not be traditional healers or herbalists. Parts of medicinal plants can be seen at every market in urban and peri-urban centres these days. Only the harvesters would know whether these parts were obtained from the mother plants in friendly ways. Traditional healers are now becoming more professional and organized making it easier to approach if only to seek information. It should be recognized, however, that what knowledge these people have did not trickle into their minds in a passive manner but that they made efforts to attain it. Under such circumstances traditional herbalists may not be blamed for being stingy with what they know in relation to medicinal plants and their uses. There is no evidence to suggest that depletion of grapple was there before the plant was commercialized which would have implicated traditional healers.
The case of grapple serves to alert us as to the possible fate of medicinal plants that are currently being exploited, especially for commercial purposes. The steps taken to protect grapple could have been much more effective if they had been more preventive than curative. This case has also shown that legal protection is not an end in itself but only a means to an end. There is tendency for people to look at whatever the law seeks to protect as belonging to the government and not themselves. This sometimes gives people the pleasure of breaking the law in question just to cheat the government. Decentralization of the controls on the utilization of natural resources could assist in cultivating a sense of ownership and responsibility.
The conservation through domestication approach that is being promoted by TL is based on some critical assumptions. The strategy assumes that the market for indigenous medicinal plants will continue to grow to absorb the products from the producers. Adoption of the strategy by traditional healers would be desirable. Traditional healers are known not to use domesticated plants, or even those that grow near inhabited areas for their work. The strategy is aimed at benefiting the rural communities who may not have the required resources to take up the cultivation of medicinal plants and other veld resources. It is assumed that these people will be able to receive assistance from the government such as that received by the producers of the conventional food crops. The experience at TL is with grapple, a creeping herbaceous plant, and three herbal teas; Lippia javanica, L scaberrima and Artemisia affra. A lot of traditional medicines however are obtained from roots of large trees such as Acaia karoo and Dischrostachys cineria.
The protection and conservation of medicinal plants does not take high priority on the agenda for natural resources management. Government programmes gives priority to agricultural and wildlife resources. This is mainly due to the identified potential of such resources in contributing positively to national development. On the other hand, it could be that there is so much information about agricultural, forestry and wildlife resources as compared to medicinal plants. This allows programmes to be developed for those systems that are better understood. The area of medicinal plants is left alone as a niche for traditional doctors. Institutions that are involved with medicinal plants such as the national herbarium do not receive as much support as the others do.
The forestry policy in draft promises in specific terms to look into the issues of protection in conservation of medicinal plants. It is important that the policy be made up of ideas from the people who use the resources. The policy should provide for the formulation of strategies that puts the control of resources into the hands of the communities.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The value of traditional medicines is gaining recognition in conventional health care locally and abroad. The markets created for medicinal plants around the world results in high harvesting pressure on the plants, thereby compromising their ability to regenerate hence resource depletion. The future of medicinal plants in Botswana depends on positive steps being taken to protect and conserve the resources before it is too late. The case of grapple bears testimony to this. There is alot that could be learnt from the traditional methods of conserving resources of great value if only strategies for obtaining such knowledge could be investigated and put to work.
The value of knowledge that indigenous people like herbalists and community leaders have needs to be recognized and perhaps rewarded by those who benefit from it one way or the other. Institutional reforms are necessary in order that conservation problems of medicinal plants can be addressed more directly instead of dealing with them as a single paragraph in a whole book. Emergence of institutions like the Bio-diversity Authority and the Botswana Dingaka Association should be strengthened to adequately deal with the issues that are important at grassroots level. The capacity of learning institutions like the University of Botswana, the National Institute for Research and Documentation, the Botswana college of Agriculture and the Institute of Health Sciences should be increased so as to take more on board in terms of research and documentation on medicinal plants and their uses.
REFERENCES
Mbewe, M.N., (1992) 'The Distribution, Utilization and Conservation of Some Under-Utilized Plant Genetic Resources in Botswana'. Paper presented at National Workshop on Plant Genetic Resources, Gaborone Sun, Gaborone, Botswana. June 23 - 26, 1992
Mbewe, M.N., (1993) Conservation and Utilization of Food and Medicinal Plants in Botswana. In de Boef, W., Amanor, K., Wellard, K., and Bennington, A (eds) cultivating knowledge. CGN/ODI/WAU/IT Publications. London, UK.
Moss, H. And Taylor, F.W., (1981) The potential for commercial utilisation of veld products. Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Botswana. Government Printer, Gaborone, Botswana.
Sekhwela, M.B.M., (1994) Grapple Plants (Harpagophytum procumbens, DC). Resource Potential and Management Studies. Final Report of the Consultancy for TL and NRMP.
Taylor, F.W., (1981) Commercial Utilization of Indigenous Plants in Botswana in Wickens, G.E., Goodin, J.R. and Field, D.V. (eds) Plants for Arid Lands.
No comments:
Post a Comment