Medicinal plant cultivation: Beliefs and perceptions of traditional healers and muthi traders in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, South Africa

Abstract

Cultivation of medicinal plant species has been recommended as a conservation intervention to reduce the pressure on wild populations that are under threat of extirpation due to overexploitation, but there have been reports of resistance among some traditional healers and muthi traders to such initiatives. This resistance raises questions of whether there are cultural barriers to cultivation that go beyond the frequently cited concerns that cultivated plants lack ‘strength’ and are ‘polluted’ in some way. This study therefore aimed to examine medicinal plant cultivation in the context of beliefs and perceptions held by resource users towards plants that are considered culturally acceptable to cultivate, those that should not be cultivated, and plants that are perceived to be scarce and/or declining in availability, and to evaluate whether there are relationships between these factors. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview 42 traditional healers and 72 muthi traders sampled from one rural village, two townships and five traditional medicine markets between KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, South Africa. Participants named 185 plant ethnospecies during the investigation (corresponding to ±171 species), of which, according to cultural norms and ancestral guidance, 98 ethnospecies were allowed to be cultivated, 68 should not be cultivated, and 23 were cited as being both allowed and should not be cultivated. The cultural factors were not specified due to sacred traditions that knowledge holders were typically not at liberty to reveal and they are thus defined only broadly as ‘beliefs’ and ‘norms’. There was a very weak, non-significant correlation between ethnospecies that are culturally acceptable to cultivate and those that are perceived to be declining in availability, hence plants that were most frequently cited as declining tended not to be cited as those that were allowed to be cultivated. There was also weak, but significant, correlation between ethnospecies that both traditional healers and muthi traders said they were allowed to cultivate. Furthermore, there was no correlation between plants that are allowed to be cultivated and those that should not be. Since traditional medicine practices encompass culture and the workings of ancestors, it is essential that traditional healers and muthi traders are included in cultivation initiatives to ensure that these interventions are culturally appropriate for the beneficiaries.