Earth Matters - Protecting indigenous knowledge systems

A coalition of female traditional leaders in South Africa are implementing a groundbreaking approach towards improving the lives of rural communities’ development through the management of indigenous knowledge systems and sustainable exploitation of natural resources with nutritional and medicinal values.

This initiative was prompted by projects currently running in South Africa to commercialise the use of indigenous plants, in order to alleviate poverty by creating new forms of generating income. As long as these projects continue without a defined strategy that promotes conservation of resources, there is a high risk that indigenous plants may be over-harvested.

Urban dwellers are already flocking to rural areas to look for herbs with medicinal and nutritional properties that may suppress the impact of HIV/Aids-related illnesses. The over-harvesting of the African potato has been cited as a prime example of the threat to indigenous plants.

The women interviewed said that indigenous plants played an important role in supplying their daily socio-economic needs. Wild plants are used to treat many health problems, including coughs, headaches, diarrhoea, skin rashes, rheumatism and arthritis, and to heal wounds. Some are used to ease the travails of birth. Many are also sources of food for communities, wherein lies the link between the nutritional and medicinal values of indigenous plants.

Just as medical doctors sometimes tell patients what kinds of food they should eat when ill, the women said this was similar to the way they administered traditional medicines in their communities. It is clear that, while the nutritional and medicinal values of indigenous plants are critical to the survival of rural residents, they also have potential to lift these communities out of poverty through sustainable commercial exploitation.

To achieve this, the women believe that the Management of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (MIKS) project should link traditional and modern conservation methods. This project is being jointly funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation and the European Union-funded project, Conservation and Development Opportunities from Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity in Communal Land of Southern Africa. This project is active in eight Southern African Development Community countries: Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In addition, in July 2004 South Africa’s Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and ResourceAfrica, a South Africa-based conservation agency, formed a partnership to implement the MIKS project.

“The ResourceAfrica and CSIR partnership was initiated at the launch of indigenous cuisines in Phalaborwa,” said Rest Kanju, project manager for ResourceAfrica.

The MIKS project also seeks to assist rural communities in protecting their rich indigenous knowledge systems about the functions of indigenous plants from being illegally acquired and patented by unscrupulous western pharmaceutical and food companies. To ensure sustainability and better management of indigenous plants, the project will focus on the role of female traditional leaders in managing the harvesting and exploitation of wild plants. Through traditional forums, workshops and media publicity, awareness about best practice will be created in communities to manage and sustain indigenous knowledge.

The partnership between the CSIR and ResourceAfrica is of strategic importance. The CSIR is “the premier technology and research organisation in Africa committed to innovation, supporting sustainable development and economic growth and creating value for clients, partners and stakeholders”. ResourceAfrica champions new collaborative management approaches to the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in Africa. It aims to deliver tangible and equitable community benefits that in turn help encourage more effective resource conservation.

The women aim to manage indigenous knowledge systems actively to prevent these from being illegally acquired by foreign agencies, with no direct benefits flowing to communities.

Matshidiso Moroka, CSIR’s programme manager of technology for development, said that the South African government recently promulgated the Biodiversity Act, which also addresses the need to protect indigenous knowledge systems. She said that, among other things, the Act states that if any person wishes to do bioprospecting, they must first apply for a permit.

“The Act also requires bioprospecting companies to provide benefit-sharing arrangements that have the approval of all stakeholders before they will be granted a research permit,” she added.

Apart from protecting indigenous knowledge systems from being illegally acquired and exploited by outsiders without benefiting the true owners, the traditional leaders said there is an urgent need to ensure that this knowledge is documented and not only transmitted orally from one generation to the next. At present, elderly people are the main custodians of this knowledge.

The women have asked for assistance from the government to protect their indigenous knowledge systems. They said this could be achieved through enforcement of the Biodiversity Act. This includes researchers studying indigenous plants should declare their intentions publicly and also make it clear how they would enter into benefit-sharing agreements with the communities from which they intend to acquire this knowledge.

Meanwhile, the women have expressed concern that, if their campaign within South Africa succeeds, agents of multi-national pharmaceutical companies may simply turn to exploiting other Southern African communities, which may not have mechanisms to protect their own indigenous knowledge systems. Together with the CSIR and ResourceAfrica, the women want the SADC to adopt a uniform approach towards managing indigenous knowledge systems.

In July 2004, female traditional leaders from South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland explored the role of traditional leaders in the conservation and promotion of indigenous foods and resources at a workshop in Phalaborwa, Limpopo. The workshop identified the manufacture of marula-based products, essential oils and the cultivation of mopani worms as examples of viable and sustainable business ventures.

Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, the Kellogg Foundation’s regional director for Southern Africa, said: “The CSIR has, through interaction with rural communities, been able to adopt and adapt appropriate technologies that have contributed positively to the socio-economic development of these communities. We believe this funding will contribute to food security and culturally sustainable socio-economic growth and development through the combination of indigenous food and natural resources with technology.”

The South African government has a good track record for promoting benefit-sharing between indigenous communities and the private and public sectors through its development agency, CSIR. About two years ago, CSIR and Khoisan communities signed a benefit-sharing agreement with a reputable US-based pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, for the sustainable and commercial exploitation of Hoodia gordonii, which contains the compound P57, an appetite-suppressant that helps to reduce obesity.

Under this agreement, the Khoisan communities (the acknowledged source of knowledge on the medicinal value of Hoodia gordonii) were granted 6% of all royalties, should the product prove successful. This agreement sets an important precedent, making it unethical for reputable companies to fail to sign benefit-sharing agreements with the communities from which they acquired indigenous knowledge.

Nevertheless, unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies continue to profit from the illegal exploitation of indigenous knowledge without compensating communities, but it is hoped that this initiative by South Africa’s female traditional leaders to take control of their indigenous knowledge systems will combat this negative trend.

Implementation
The next stage of this initiative is to devise an implementation plan that will yield tangible results. The women say they intend to uplift the socio-economic well-being of their communities by establishing community business enterprises that produce, market and sell traditional foods and medicines. A traditional food production centre and restaurant has already been set up in the Rharhabe Kingdom in the Eastern Cape, and local women are being trained to manage it.

A group of about 20 female Rharhabe traditional leaders also plan to develop a traditional medicines pharmacy. They believe that rural economies in South Africa have a unique service to provide to the nation and that, if well marketed, this could significantly improve rural livelihoods. To promote the use of traditional foods, they have also recently published a recipe book, which is sold at US$30 per copy.