Nonfood uses of plants in Usambara

Abstract

The attempt here has been to discuss Shambaa use of wild nonfood plants primarily in terms of utility, but also with some attention to principles of classification and of the effects of human use of plants on the wider environment. The local system of classification emphasizes those plants which are useful to people. There are many of these, which may be surprising in an area that has been undergoing commercialization and socio-economic change since the early years of this century (P. Fleuret, 1979). Natural systems still provide the Shambaa with many useful, even essential products. But those plants that are useful are also being used up, and continued exploitation has ramifications for the other components of the ecosystem: fish vanished from the streams, wild date palms and tree ferns vanishing, deforestation, erosion, fuelwood shortages, increasing prices for many natural products. By all indications, the most crucial effects of human exploitation have occurred within the last 100 years. Contemporary accounts by missionaries and explorers describe the area as “... abound[ing] in forests of fine timber ...” (Krapf, 1860) or cite oral traditions indicating that the most seriously deforested areas of today were under forest just prior to the turn of the century. (Data obtained from Lushoto District files lodged at the Tanzania National Archives, Dar es Salaam.) As recently as 1975, one author, in writing of Usambara, suggested that a solution to agricultural crisis (especially land shortage) was to open the remaining forest reserve to human settlement and cultivation (Cliffe, 1975, pp. 149–150). This suggestion does not take into account the fact that the natural vegetation of Usambara continues to provide its residents with a great many vital materials and implements, even though human use of these resources is approaching, or has even reached, a critical point in terms of ecological consequences. Efforts should be made to preseve, not destroy, this vital natural resource.