Hluhluwe
Community Indigenous Nursery
Project
Hluhluwe – Umolozi Game Park,
Kwazulu–Natal Nature
Conservation Service (Ezemvelo)
Background of the project
Traditional care is an important
part of rural life in KwaZulu-Natal.
The availability of
“western” health care in
many rural areas is inadequate and
traditional healers are more numerous
and more accessible. The ratio of
healers to people in KwaZulu - Natal
is 1:500 whilst the ratio of western
medical doctor is 1:17 500.
Traditional remedies rely heavily
on natural resources. Without
conservation measures and the
promotion of sustainable use in
community areas, the future
availability of medicinal plants is
at risk. Amongst plant gatherers, the
collecting and selling of medicinal
plants has become highly commercial
and harvesting of medicinal plants
continues unabated. Fortunately there
is an increasing awareness amongst
traditional healers and tribal
leaders in rural areas, regarding the
threat facing this ever-diminishing
resource and the effect it will
inevitably have on the neighboring
communities.
In March 1994 a funding proposal
was submitted by the former Natal
Parks Board to the Provincial
Administration to start an external
pilot project aimed at conserving and
promoting sustainable use of
indigenous medicinal plants in
communities adjacent to Hluhluwe Game
Park. Funding was approved and the
project commenced in July 1995 as a
partnership between former Natal
Parks Board (presently KwaZulu-Natal
Nature Conservation Service) and the
neighboring communities.
Since the start of the project,
several community medicinal gardens
have been established. In addition an
indigenous plant nursery has also
been established within Hluhluwe
– Umfolozi Game Park where
gathered indigenous material is
propagated for re-introduction into
the community. In order to generate
income and make project
self-sustainable, plants from the
nursery are available to visitors to
the park, local nurseries and other
interested parties.
Beneficiaries of the project
The local population, who consult
traditional healers and are therefore
the end users of medicinal plants,
are the major beneficiaries. In
addition, conservation aims are
furthered through sustainable
utilization of natural resources
inside and outside of protected
areas. Through facilitation and
support for traditional health care
and therefore alleviating pressure on
hospital, clinics, etc., the
Department of Health is another major
beneficiary.
The traditional healers also
benefit through growing their own
medicinal plant requirements. This
provides them with an access to
continual, fresh supply that is
legal, relatively cheaper and income
generating.
A series of secondary benefits
have been achieved, such as: sale of
medicinal plants, vegetable
production for home consumption and
resale, planting of fruit trees,
etc.
Achivements
The pilot project has been
successful in achieving an
understanding and awareness of the
vulnerability amongst traditional
healers of medicinal plants,
establishing medicinal gardens
outside protected areas as well as
the formalization and networking
amongst traditional healers.
Community partners and local tribal
authorities have demonstrated full
support for the project and at
present four interested groups of
healers are successfully running
medicinal gardens in neighboring,
non- protected areas.
This project has won two national
Peace Gardens Awards for excellence
in 1996 and 1997.
At National, Provincial and local
level there is growing recognition
that this type of project can
contribute immensely to the
conservation of biodiversity and
sustainable living in areas that are
not formally protected.
Proposal
It is proposed to expand the pilot
project and establish another 8-10
medicinal gardens or farms in the
period of next three years. This
would include iziNyanga (traditional
healers) and iSangoma (diviners) as
well as other interested groups or
individuals from another eight Tribal
Authorities areas around Hluhluwe -
Umfolozi Game Park.
These gardens would serve to
provide medicinal plant supplies to
the groups involved as well as
training points for other interested
groups and individuals wishing to
establish these types of gardens or
farms through out the area.
Due to the large area covered by
this project, one of our most
pressing needs for the continuation
of the project is transport. This can
be facilitated either by a provision
of funds for a vehicle or by covering
costs of transport for 3000 km per
month.
The cost of establishing a garden
or farm is approximately R3000.00
(approximately USD 600) and our
estimated costs for training and
field trips are R10 000 per year
(approximately USD 2000).
At the moment, the project is
employing two members of staff –
a project coordinator and a nursery
employee. With availability of new
funding, it is our vision to employ a
project manager from the local
community and provide him/her with
training so he/she is able to run the
project within two years.
If you require more information or
detail funding proposal or wish to
make a contribution towards our work,
please contact the project
coordinator on the above
address.
Contact: Nikolina K. Drysdale,
Project Coordinator, Hluhluwe
Community Indigenous Nursery Project,
Post Box 692, Hlabisa, KwaZulu-Natal,
3937 South Africa, Tel./Fax
+27.358.381155, e-mail drysdale@iafrica.com
Basketry
Ecology:
a
Museum and Market-Based Global
Survey
"Basketry ecology" is
the interrelationship of baskets, the
plant materials they are made from,
and the humans who make and use them,
as well as the environment shared by
all three. This survey is gathering
data from museum collections, from
the ethnographic and botanical
literature, and from contemporary
weavers and basketry dealers,
collectors, etc., to produce an
overview of basketry, including
representative basketry plants and
basket-making cultures for all major
geographic areas of the world. It is
meant to serve as a model for
combining extant scientific data from
museum collections and the literature
with knowledge gained from present
day weavers. The goal is to develop a
better understanding of the
relationship of baskets and weavers
to the plants they employ, to explore
patterns of use and harvest of
basketry plants, and thus to address
timely issues of interest to weavers,
collectors, and community development
and conservation agencies. The
resulting synthesis will weave the
seemingly disparate threads of
basketry into more than just women's
work, but rather into an important
contribution by native women to
traditional resource management and
the conservation of wild-harvested
plant resources. This will, in turn,
lead to more detailed field research
and discussion of basketry ecology.
The survey has begun with a
literature review, market survey and
examination of basketry collections
at the Peabody Museum of Harvard
University, one of the best basketry
collections in the world. Baskets,
both historic and contemporary, made
from a variety of plants by diverse
cultural groups from around the
world, will be studied further. The
taxonomic identity of the plants they
are made from will be determined,
along with their habitat,
distribution, conservation status,
etc. Essential ethnographic data for
the cultures producing these baskets
will likewise be recorded. I estimate
that several hundred basketry plants
will be identified in the course of
this research; concise treatments,
with photographs, of 100 basketry
plants and cultures will be featured
in a book to be published at the end
of this initial project. Basketry
plants to be included in this book
will be those that are taxonomically
or ecologically distinct, that have
uncommon harvest practices, that are
of conservation concern, or whose
baskets were or are culturally
important, especially those that are
presently traded in international or
national markets.
Any information about which plant
species are being used to make what
sort of baskets by whom, and what the
baskets are being used for, and any
sort of information on gathering
practices, would be greatly
appreciated. I would be interested in
receiving pertinent literature,
including difficult to obtain texts
from foreign sources; photographs of
baskets and basketry plants, and
their harvest, production, use and
sale; and baskets, old or new, with
documentation. Contact information
for knowledgeable people; photographs
and baskets with accompanying detail;
literature, whether of scientific or
popular nature; and of course, any
sort of underwriting (at present, I
have minimal funding for this
project), will be graciously accepted
and acknowledged.
As part of the study, I will seek
to determine the one hundred or so
baskets most traded in the world (in
international or regional markets),
link these to historic baskets from
collections, and determine the
resource management and conservation
of the species used as materials. To
do this correctly, I am trying to
acquire contemporary baskets as gifts
or at local market prices. These
baskets will be deposited as vouchers
in a collection that eventually will
be given to a major institution (such
as the Peabody Museum of Harvard
University, Smithsonian Institution
or the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew).
Any help in obtaining these baskets,
accompanied by detailed collection
data, would be much appreciated.
Contact: Elaine Joyal, , 333 East
Balboa Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 USA;
Tel. +1.602.8942287, e-mail joyal@asu.edu
(Elaine Joyal is Adjunct Professor,
Department of Anthropology, Arizona
State University, Tempe, AZ
85287-2402 USA).
