Africa should conserve wealth

A lot of concern has been raised about the rapid loss of biodiversity and the indigenous knowledge in Africa.
Available statistics present worrying trends. One in every four of the world’s plant species could become extinct by the middle of this century. About 75 plants and animals became extinct during the first 70 years of the last century. And of the 43,000 plant species at IUCN database, 18,000 are threatened.
This trend is scary because of obvious facts. Plants are a source of food and medicine, not only to humankind but the entire animal kingdom as well. They provide a fundamental base for the delicate ecological balance.
Africa, which is home to a great wealth of medicinal plants and indigenous knowledge, is threatened with a great loss of its bioresources. Fortunately, this has been noticed. The emerging refocus on traditional medicine has increased attention on ethnobotanical studies and conservation of medicinal plants.
According to R.L.A. Mahunnah of the Institute of Traditional Medicine at the University of Dar es Salaam, only about 5,000 species of higher plants worldwide have been exhaustively studied as a source of new drugs for human use, compared to the estimated world flora of 250,000 species.
“Naturally, our attention should be directed to this rich biome in the tropical rain forests as a possible source of new plant drugs,” he says in a paper he presented at the 15th meeting of the Inter-African Experts Committee on African Traditional Medicine and Medicinal Plants held in Arusha recently.
Mahunnah’s presentation was about the way forward in the ethnobotany and conservation of medicinal plants in Africa in the next decade.
Giving examples of meetings and discussions dating back to 1968, he says research on and development of medicinal plants have been on the agenda for a long time in Africa, and adds that documents that emerged from such past discussions could form a resource material for charting out the vision for African traditional medicine in the next decade.
He defines ethnobotany, in this context, as the study of medicinal plants, their uses and conservation, and suggests four ways through which ethnobotanists could promote sustainable use of medicinal plants.
He predictably starts with calling for conservation of traditional (indigenous) knowledge, which he says, should be followed by raising awareness about its existence and importance to local people as well as the public.
The third step towards this effort, according to Mahunnah, should be the development of land tenure systems that will maintain sustainable land use. The dissemination of indigenous knowledge to scientists, researchers, planners and administrators could then follow to improve research for the benefit of all.

To achieve these, Mahunnah presented in his paper an implementation strategy for ehnobotanical studies. It involves establishing human resource training programmes for plant scientists, enhancing a multidisciplinary research approach to ethnobotany accompanied by adequate relevant infrastructure including databases with appropriate literature and herbaria, and soliciting for funds to facilitate all these.

He goes on to point out that there is need for the development of comprehensive policy framework “based on biodiversity and socio-economic environment of the respective country, addressing issues of access, ownership and utilisation of medicinal plants. On this, he says legislation ought to be put in place to protect wild as well as cultivated medicinal plant species.

He singles out agrotechnology, biotechnology, development of botanic gardens and establishing protected areas as ways through which medicinal plants could be conserved. Agrotechnology involves domesticating medicinal plants either in-situ or ex-situ, while biotechnology could be used in ex-situ propagation and improvement of the plants.

With reduction in the extent of natural vegetation, legally protected areas can be looked upon as the last reservoir of bioresources, including medicinal plants, says Mahunnah. He provides details on how this can be achieved through identifying distribution details of medicinal plants and demarcating them, publicising the role of such areas for medicinal purposes and designing legal systems of management and harvesting of the plants.

On botanic gardens, he says there is room of improvement and this should be encouraged. In most cases, botanic gardens specialise in cultivation and study of medicinal plants. Out of a world total of 1400 known botanic gardens, only about 230 exist in developing countries.

The developed world has a lot of benefits to share as far as botanic gardens are concerned. Africa could benefit by learning from there experience, says Mahunnah. “Africa should conserve her rich biodiversity as a matter of urgency and necessity for future medicinal uses and food security,” he concludes.