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The Africulture Centre in Grahamstown, South Africa.

South Africa

Africulture Centre, Grahamstown, South Africa

Located on the outskirts of Grahamstown South Africa, where one in three people are now HIV positive, the Africulture Project consists of a 1 hectare training facility and nursery, specialising in the cultivation, processing and marketing of medicinal plants. This is a four year project developed in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and local training partner Umthathi - with funding by the UK Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) through the Darwin Initiative. The project also has strong institutional support from within South Africa, including the South Africa National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and Rhodes University.

Plant compounds play an important role in modern medicine, forming the building blocks of many of allopathic medicines. Many species are effective immune and appetite stimulants, vital for malnourishment, whilst others contain active properties that can ward off secondary infections. These are vital and underused strategies in the battle to improve community health. A key role of the project is to ensure that the latest information on any negative interactions between ARVs and traditionally used plants is disseminated amongst traditional healthcare practitioners. Areas where caution is advised relate to hypoxis, leonora leonotis, and sutherlandia frutusens.

The hidden economy in medicinals is estimated at between $60-200 million p/a, with more than 200,000 practicing healers in the country. The market is largely informal and pricing, particularly on the micro level, does not adequately reflect the demand for, and scarcity of, traded varieties. With 80% of the indigenous population relying solely on traditional medicines, many livelihoods are dependant on these natural resources, as their first and often only port of call. There is a need to optimise the market conditions for sustainability. Harvested by informal traders with few incentives for conservation management, 93% of the species studied are currently being harvested unsustainably, with 34 species under immediate threat. In partnership with Kew, quality control and an accessible guide to species will ensure that more people can check the quality of materials being traded and used, and traditional healthcare practitioners can be provided with the latest information to improve practices.

Of traditional healers interviewed, 54% stated a patient increase in the last 5 years as a result of HIV/AIDS; 81% expected a further upsurge in the next 5 years. With stretched allopathic (formal) health sector and over 70% unemployment in the target area, indigenous plants will continue to form an important part of primary health care, but only if raw materials can be delivered in sustainable quantities.

In such a fragile environment, the loss of this biological, and corresponding cultural diversity presents a severe threat to community health in South Africa and indeed across Southern Africa as a whole. Due to high mortality rates within indigenous communities, the knowledge about plant activities is being lost at an alarming rate. This project aims to restore this balance by establishing a valuable safety net in the heart of the Eastern Cape.

Training incorporates cultivation and sustainable harvesting from the wild, and will extend to agro-producers, and micro-nursery training & establishment to supply cultivated alternatives to local market traders. Methods promoted through training seek to advance conservation management through training with traditional healers and harvesters. The Africulture Project will enable poor and marginalised people to meet their basic needs - promoting both the sustainable use of genetic resources, and livelihood benefits for themselves and future generations. The Project also advocates on behalf of traditional health care practitioners, harvesters and traders to ensure that their rights are duly considered in relation to changing legal frameworks around harvesting, plant use and indigenous knowledge protection.

Project Collaborators