Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Narend Singh has asked government and the traditional medicine sector to work together to grow medicinal plants. He said this would ease the strain on wild plants that are being harvested too heavily.
Singh spoke at the India-South Africa Traditional Medicines Symposium and Exhibition in Durban on Saturday. He said the 2024 Red List of endangered plants shows that 154 commonly used medicinal plant species are at risk of extinction because of overuse.
“If the plant goes, the medicine goes with it. You cannot keep a tradition alive in a storeroom. If we want traditional medicine to have a future, the plants have to have a future too,” Singh said.
According to the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), 2 062 indigenous plant species are used in traditional medicine. Singh said this is about one in 10 of all plant species in the country.
He said more than 200,000 traditional health practitioners depend on these plants. “This is not a fringe practice. This is a health system. It is also under strain,” he said.
Singh said towns and cities want more of the plants than the wild can supply. He said drought, a changing climate and poverty are making the problem worse. He added that some of the trade is illegal.
“We have to learn to grow what we use, put back what we have taken, and leave enough for the next pair of hands,” the Deputy Minister said.
He said the duty to protect plants also covers the digital DNA information taken from them. Singh said the benefits from using this information must be shared fairly with South African practitioners.
Singh said SANBI keeps records of which plants are used and which populations are in trouble. The institute also keeps the National Red List and helps people identify, grow and replant species.
According to Singh, SANBI is working with traditional health practitioners, traditional leaders, communities and provincial conservation authorities. “None of that works if it is done over the heads of the people who know the plants,” he said.
He said the aim is to help rural healers keep getting or growing the plants their patients need. He said households should also be able to earn an income without using up natural stocks.
Singh said the government is looking for money to fund the work properly. He said this would happen under Component 2 of the Global Environment Facility (GEF-8) proposal, called Securing Nature’s Contributions to People.
He said SANBI has proposed a project focused on growing plants, training people and restoring land. Healers have already named 15 medicinal plants that are becoming hard to find in the wild.
Under the proposal, those 15 plants would be grown at scale. Mother stock and training in growing plants would go to 1,800 traditional healers and community members. At least half of them would be women, Singh said.
The project would also restore 1,800 hectares of worn out communal land in Limpopo, North West and the Eastern Cape. Singh said it would map places of cultural value in three provinces.
Singh asked the sector to expand nurseries and build on the work already done by SANBI and traditional healers. He also called for value chains that do not cheat communities.
“Let us make room for young people, and especially for women, who are already half the story and too often none of the credit,” he said.
Source: this article is based on reporting by SAnews.gov.za. Image: GCIS via SAnews.gov.za. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.