A new attitude to traditional muti could help save endangered species, writes Eddie Koch
THE Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) gathering in Harare was dominated this week by fierce debate over the international ban on trade in ivory. But in a largely unheralded move, hundreds of Western conservationists adopted a new approach to the practice of traditional medicine that could have a significantly greater impact on the animal trade than the elephant debate.
The new accord between Western conservationists and traditional healers in Asia and Africa – hammered out at the Cites summit – is likely to stimulate the development of new pharmaceuticals while saving animals used for ancient medicines from becoming extinct in the wild.
The agreement indicates a new rapport developing in the international organisation between two groups traditionally at loggerheads – wildlife experts trying to suppress trade in animal parts used in traditional muti and supporters of indigenous healers. And the thawing of hostilities will bolster programmes in South Africa to prevent rare plants and animals from being depleted by sangomas and inyangas.
A position paper co-sponsored by Britain, Japan and Korea argues that Western scientists will only be able to save endangered animals if they recognise that healers in Eastern countries like China use the body parts of tigers, bears and rhinos for medicines that can effectively treat life-threatening fevers.
The paper argues that traditional medicines made from plant and animal products are deeply embedded in the cultures of people on all five continents and that conservationists, instead of trying to suppress the trade in wild pharmacological materials, should co-operate with traditional healers so that common approaches can be used – especially in cases where animals are threatened with extinction.
“I think it is important to note that traditional medicines around the world use plants and animals, even Western medicine, and East Asia feels particularly victimised that their medicine system has been targeted,” Traffic International’s East Asia director Judy Mills told reporters.
There are widespread myths in Western society that rhinos have been slaughtered in Africa to provide horn for the manufacture of aphrodisiacs and other frivolous concoctions, while the keratin in the horn is, in fact, used in bona fide medicines that can save thousands of people from lethal fevers every year.
“Cites is, for the first time [in its 25- year history], taking on traditional medicine as a separate issue, realising it is not going to go away. At the same time, the traditional medicine community is getting the message that wildlife conservation is not going to go away,” said Mills.
“So what we are coming to now is an interesting dialogue where both sides are listening to each other and realising they are going to have to make some concessions and work together.”
Traffic International is the world’s largest wildlife monitoring organisation and is jointly funded by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the most powerful conservation agencies at Harare. Traffic also co-operates closely with the Cites secretariat and is likely to obtain support for its new position from most of the convention’s 139 member states.
In a sign that the new mood of co-operation instead of confrontation is stretching the frontiers of medical research, the National Association of Medicine Practitioners and Research in China sent a message to delegates at the Cites meeting expressing support for moves to prevent poaching of endangered mammals.
The organisation noted it was conducting a set of trials designed to replace pharmaceuticals derived from animal parts with herbal medicines. China has thus recently removed rhino horn from its official pharmacopoeia, replacing it with water buffalo horn. Researchers in that country are also on the verge of announcing an official substitute for tiger bone after conducting extensive clinical trials.
Farieda Khan, projects director at the University of Cape Town’s Environmental Evaluation Unit, says this new approach to traditional medicine will have a huge impact on conservation in South Africa.
“It is the most practical and sensible suggestion I have heard coming out of Cites for a long time. We are dealing with emotions and long-held beliefs that are cherished by the people who hold them. Some of the knowledge that goes into the making of these medicines are centuries, if not tens of centuries, old. We have to work in partnership with these people.”
Researchers at the Institute for Natural Resources in KwaZulu-Natal estimate that in that province alone there are some 20 000 people gathering plants or animals for use in the traditional medicine industry. Every year some 1 500 tons of plant material, the equivalent of 110 trucks each capable of carrying 40 tons, is sold in the markets of Durban alone.
“Our figures show that plant collectors who supply traditional practitioners sell plants worth R60-million a year, about one- third of the maize crop for KwaZulu-Natal. The dispensed value of the medicines made from these plants is estimated at about R500-million a year for the province. If you extrapolate these figures to the whole of the South Africa the traditional medicine industry could be generating a spending of up to R2,3-billion,” says a consultant at the institute, Miles Mander.
“Conservationists tend to concentrate on flagship species such as rhinos and tigers. But, if you consider these statistics, it becomes clear that other plants and animals, including those used in our local traditional medicines industry, should be focused on. The need for working with these practitioners in order to protect biological diversity is becoming even more clear.”
Jenny Mander, manager of the institute’s natural resource programme, said the new approach being hammered out at Cites would bolster programmes currently being implemented in South Africa to prevent species extinction and deal with the needs of traditional healers.
The institute has begun several schemes in northern KwaZulu-Natal where subsistence farmers are encouraged to participate in the traditional pharmaceutical industry by growing bulbous plants and trees that are widely in demand from the healers – rather than compete with commercial farmers in the more established agricultural sectors.
“We have initiated a number of schemes where farmers diversify into the cultivation of bulbous plants. These have a good turn-around time and generate significant amounts for families. We have also encouraged people to grow hedgerows of trees like the pepperbark, which is widely used for a range of ailments.”
The institute is also working with the Natal Parks Board on schemes that allow healers and plant collectors into many of the province’s game parks to gather protected plants on a regulated basis. Said Mander: “The new approach at Cites will help to consolidate the partnership that we are trying to encourage between healers and conservationists in this country.”
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