Born-frees and worn trees: home grown medicinal plants and poverty

Husselman, Madeleen; Cocks, Michelle L

Title: Born-frees and worn trees: home grown medicinal plants and poverty
Creator: Husselman, Madeleen
Creator: Cocks, Michelle L
Date Issued: 2010
Date: 2010
Type: text
Type: book
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141464
Identifier: vital:37974
Identifier: ISBN 9781136886072
Identifier: DOI: 10.4324/9780203839645-19
Description: Despite the widespread use of modern medicines, the parallel role of traditional medicine remains popular in both rural and urban areas and among both wealthy and poor African communities in South Africa. A substantial body of literature exists which documents some of the salient characteristics of the trade and use of traditional medicines (Ngubane 1977; Cocks and Wiersum 2002; Cocks and Møller 2002; Cocks and Dold 2006). Mander (1998) estimated that 27 million people used indigenous medicine in South Africa in a decade. The use and trade of plants for medicine is no longer confined to traditional healers but has entered both the informal and formal sectors of the South African economy (Dauskardt 1990, 1991; Cocks and Dold 2000), resulting in an increase in the number of herbal gatherers and traders (Dold and Cocks 2002). The largely informal trade in traditional medicines forms part of multi-million rand ‘hidden economy’ in southern Africa, and it is now bigger than at any time in the past. It is certainly one of the most complex resource management issues facing conservation agencies, healthcare professionals and resource users in South Africa today (Cunningham 1997). Research points towards a trend of increasing harvesting pressures on traditional supply areas linked to a growing shortage in supply of popular medicinal plant species (Williams et al. 1997, 2000; Mander 1998; Dold and Cocks 2002).
Format: 19 pages
Format: pdf
Publisher: Routledge
Language: English
Relation: Cocks, M. and Husselman, M., 2010. Born-frees and worn trees: home grown medicinal plants and poverty. In Reforming Land and Resource Use in South Africa (pp. 251-269). Routledge.
Rights: Authors
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Taylor and Francis Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.tandfonline.com/terms-and-conditions)

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