Mopane Woodlands and the Mopane Worm: Enhancing Rural Livelihoods and Resource Sustainability

Mopane Woodlands and the Mopane Worm: Enhancing rural livelihoods and resource sustainability Final Technical Report Edited by Jaboury Ghazoul1, Division of Biology, Imperial College London Authors and contributors Mopane Tree Management: Dirk Wessels2, Member Mushongohande3, Martin Potgeiter7 Domestication Strategies: Alan Gardiner4, Jaboury Ghazoul Kgetsie ya Tsie Case Study: John Pearce5 Livelihoods and Marketing: Jayne Stack6, Peter Frost7, Witness Kozanayi3, Tendai Gondo3, Nyarai Kurebgaseka8, Andrew Dorward9, Nigel Poole5 New Technologies: Frank Taylor10, Alan Gardiner Choice experiments: Robert Hope11, Witness Kozanayi, Tendai Gondo Mopane worm diseases: Robert Knell12 Start and End Date 1 May 2001 – 31 January 2006 DFID Project Reference Number R 7822 Research Programme Forestry Research Programme (FRP) Research Production System Forest Agriculture Interface 1 Also ETH Zürich, Department of Environmental Sciences, ETH Zentrum CHN, Universitätstrasse 16, Zürich 8092, Switzerland 2 Department of Botany, university fo the North, South Africa 3 Forest Commission, Harare, Zimbabwe 4 Veld Products Research and Development, Gabarone, and Division of Biology, Imperial College London 5 Kgetsie ya Tsie, Tswapong Hills, Botswana 6 Imperial College London and University of Zimbabwe, Project Co-ordinator 7 Institute of Environmental Studies 8 Southern Alliance for Indigenous Resources 9 Imperial College London, Centre for Environmental Policy. 10 Veld Products Research and Development 11 University of Newcastle 12 Queen Mary College, University of London 1 Contents Executive Summary 3 Background 3 Project Purpose 6 Research Activities Section 1. Mopane tree ecology and management 7 Section 2.1 Mopane worm productivity and domestication 18 Section 2.2 Mini-livestock: Rural Mopane Worm Farming at the Household Level 34 Section 3. A case study of the Kgetsie ya Tsie community enterprise model for managing and trading mopane worms 59 Section 4. Mopane worm markets 70 Section 5 Livelihoods analysis of mopane worm use 94 Section 6 102 Contribution of Outputs 2 Executive Summary The mopane worm (MW), Imbrasia belina, and mopane woodland products are key resources to poor farmers and landless poor people across southern Africa. The project purpose was to identify the principal factors that limit MW production and to determine how MW and mopane woodland can be managed to increase production. Socioeconomic studies addressed the use of MW as a livelihood support for poor rural people. Ecological investigations will build on existing knowledge of MW biology and mopane woodland management to facilitate improved management of mopane woodland to increase mopane worm yields; and a community mopane worm farm will be established. Principal ultimate beneficiaries will be the rural poor across the mopane zone. Background The widespread utilization of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) by rural households in sub-Saharan Africa has been confirmed by several studies (exhaustively reviewed in Townson 1994). Forest foods, firewood use and sale, basketry and handicrafts, furniture and carpentry and other extractive products all form a portfolio of NTFPs that have an important role to play in the growth and functioning of rural households' small-scale enterprises and collectively make substantial contributions to rural households economies. Indeed, Cavendish (1999a) using household data from rural Zimbabwe, showed that environmental resources generated as much as 35 percent of average per capita incomes, with major contributions coming from wild foods, firewood, the use of woodland-derived construction materials, and the contribution of woodland areas to livestock browse and graze. Furthermore, this study revealed significant differentiation in resource use by different rural groups. Poor households, for example, derived over 40 percent of their income from environmental resources, and resource dependence declined systematically as households became richer. Mopane worms, caterpillars of the Anomalous Emperor Moth Imbrasia belina, which feed almost exclusively on the mopane tree Colophospermum mopane, are a valuable NTFP resource that contribute substantially to rural economies and nutrition in mopane forest areas. The value of mopane worms in South Africa alone has been estimated at £2,850 ha-1 (Rebe 1999), and extrapolation from Styles’s (1994a) estimation of mopane worm density, the annual population of mopane worms in South Africa’s 20,000 km2 of mopane veld is worth £57m, of which approximately 40% goes to producers who are primarily poor rural women. In addition to their value as an income source for poor rural women, mopane worms also provide nutritious food for rural households and urban dwellers. Traditionally, mopane worms have been harvested for subsistence use by rural households (Ashipala et al. 1996) and they are thought to make a significant contribution to rural diets, although there has never been a proper assessment of this. Malnutrition, particularly with pre-school and primary school rural children, is a serious problem in many areas of South Africa (Vorster et al. 1997). Dried mopane worms have a high protein content with 65.8 percent dry weight crude protein content and 53.3 percent dry weight digestible protein (Siame et al. 1996; Dreyer and Wehmeyer 1982). Rebe (1999) suggests that a daily intake of mopane worms could play an important role as a source of nutrients for pregnant women and children in rural areas, but found that adults consume mopane worms more frequently and in larger quantities than children. Increased supplies of mopane worm in both rural and urban areas therefore have the potential to address food security problems both by increasing incomes for poor mopane harvesters or producers (providing financial capital for food purchases) and by increasing the availability of a high-protein and popular food. Harvesting of mopane worms takes place during a short period (about three to four weeks) while the caterpillars are on the tree. There is usually one main harvest per year but a smaller second harvest occurs in April or May following good rains. Harvesting is mostly done by women (Dithlogo et al. 1996, CAMPFIRE 1999) who hand pick the caterpillars from the branches or, on larger trees, shake the trees or cut infested branches. Most estimates suggest that an individual can harvest between 25 and 50kg of mopane worm per day (Ashipala et al. 1996). Following harvesting, the caterpillars are eviscerated, boiled and dried in the sun, after which they can be stored for almost a year. Thus, the consumption of mopane worms can occur over a considerably longer period than the harvest, provided processing and storage procedures are adequate to avoid spoiling. Mopane worms form just one part of a whole set of household economic activities and therefore it is important to place mopane worms in the context of the wider rural household economy. Rural household economic activities are multifarious, usually comprising agricultural production, livestock rearing, a variety of non-farm enterprises, migration and economic connections to formal labour markets, goods trading, and the collection and use of freely- provided environmental goods, some of which come from forests and woodlands. From the perspective of rural households NTFPs form just one component of a set of livelihood activities, and mopane worms comprise a single, albeit important forest product. An important goal of socioeconomic research on mopane worms is therefore to place (i) the value of mopane worm use in the context of the broader household economy and (ii) to identify the opportunities and constraints arising from interactions between mopane worm based activities and other household activities. According to Rebe (1999) commercialisation of the mopane worm trade in southern Africa has led to over-harvesting with rural women now collecting substantially more than a single person would have traditionally harvested for family consumption alone. Apparent over-harvesting in South Africa has led to strong demands for imported mopane 3 worms from Botswana (Moruakgomo 1996; Letsie, 1996). Coupled with reports of over-harvesting there is also a severe lack in basic knowledge needed to manage mopane woodlands in the face of increasing and multiple resource demands. The need for the broader management of mopane woodland stems from the use of woodlands as sources of building material, firewood, charcoal production, rope and medicine. Mopane woodland studies are therefore needed to meet the demands of multiple resource management. The value of the mopane worm trade is substantial. The commercial value of mopane worm harvests can reach $3,000 per ha (DeFoliart 1995) amounting to annual sales of 1.6m kgs in South Africa alone. In Botswana, the mopane worm harvest in a good year is estimated to be worth $3.3m, providing employment to 10,000 people (Styles 1995a). It is unlikely that these values are achieved year on year as the mopane worm trade is known to fluctuate. The basis for this is not economic, as demand for mopane worms appears to be constant, but rather ecological in that mopane worm outbreaks are temporally and spatially erratic. The irregular and largely unpredictable nature of mopane worm outbreaks results in price fluctuations and uncertainty of supply, both undesirable outcomes for poor, risk-averse farmers. Variability in the geographic occurrence of outbreaks may also lead to conflicts between community groups. One of the main objectives of this programme is therefore

Load more