Conservation of Wild-harvested Medicinal Examensarbete i Hållbar Utveckling 124 Plant Species in Tanzania Chain and consequence of commercial trade on medicinal plant species Conservation of Wild-harvested Medicinal Plant Species in Tanzania Michael Nahashon Chain and consequence of commercial trade on medicinal plant species Michael Nahashon Uppsala University, Department of Earth Sciences Master Thesis E, in Sustainable Development, 30 credits Printed at Department of Earth Sciences, Master’s Thesis Geotryckeriet, Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2013. E, 30 credits Examensarbete i Hållbar Utveckling 124 Conservation of Wild-harvested Medicinal Plant Species in Tanzania Chain and consequence of commercial trade on medicinal plant species Michael Nahashon Supervisor: Hugo. J de Boer, Joseph. N Otieno Evaluator: Heather McMillen CONTENT CONTENT ...................................................................................................................................................................I ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................................................. IV 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 PURPOSE ...................................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 HYPOTHESIS ................................................................................................................................................ 2 1.3 MARKET SURVEY ......................................................................................................................................... 2 2 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................................................ 3 2.1 SOCIO –ECONOMIC RELEVANCE AND IMPACT .............................................................................................. 3 2.2 INTERNATIONAL TRADE ............................................................................................................................... 4 2.3 SOCIO – ECOLOGY RELEVANCE AND IMPACT ............................................................................................... 4 3 METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES ...................................................................................................... 5 3.1 INTERVIEWS AND THE STUDY AREA ............................................................................................................. 5 3.2 CONSERVATION ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT PLANNING .................................................................... 7 4 RESULTS ........................................................................................................................................................... 8 4.1 CHAIN OF COMMERCIAL TRADE ................................................................................................................... 8 4.1.1 Vendors ................................................................................................................................................... 8 4.1.1 Traditional Healing Practitioners THPs .............................................................................................. 10 4.1.2 Harvesters ............................................................................................................................................ 11 4.1.3 Treatment .............................................................................................................................................. 11 4.1.4 Commercial trade path ......................................................................................................................... 12 4.1.5 Medicinal plants ................................................................................................................................... 12 4.2 CONSEQUENCES OF COMMERCIAL TRADE .................................................................................................. 14 4.2.1 Free list ................................................................................................................................................. 15 4.2.2 Consensus of medicinal plant species between stakeholders................................................................ 20 5 CONSERVATION GUIDELINES ................................................................................................................. 24 5.1 POLICY AND REGULATIONS ........................................................................................................................ 24 5.2 IN-SITU CONSERVATION ............................................................................................................................. 26 5.3 COMMUNITY CONSERVED AREAS .............................................................................................................. 26 5.4 EX-SITU CONSERVATION ............................................................................................................................ 26 5.5 TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE ................................................................................................. 28 5.6 EDUCATION AND RESEARCH ...................................................................................................................... 29 5.7 OTHER SUGGESTIONS ................................................................................................................................. 29 6 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................................... 30 6.1 INCENTIVE PROGRAM ................................................................................................................................. 33 7 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................ 34 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................................................................. 35 9 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................ 36 10 APPENDIXES .................................................................................................................................................. 41 10.1 APPENDIX I ................................................................................................................................................ 41 10.2 APPENDIX II............................................................................................................................................... 42 10.3 APPENDIX III ............................................................................................................................................. 43 i Conservation of Wild-harvested medicinal plant species in Tanzania: Chain and consequence of commercial trade on medicinal plant species. MICHAEL NAHASHON Nahashon, M., 2013: Conservation of wild-harvested medicinal plant species in Tanzania: Chain and consequences of commercial trade on medicinal plant species. Master thesis in Sustainable Development at Uppsala University, No. 124, 50 pp, 30 ECTS/hp. Abstract: Tanzania is endowed with more than 10,000 plant species, of which 1,100 are endemic. The coastal regions host most endemic species, due to its wide range of productive ecological conditions. Over 25 % of all species are used as wild-harvested medicinal plants. About 60% of the Tanzanian population in both rural and urban areas depends on traditional medicine and herbs as their primary health care, and as a means of generating income. This is due to high costs and unavailability of the universal healthcare, which was abolished in 1993. The aim of the thesis is to make a structured and a quantitative investigation to identify traded medicinal plants traded in markets of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania with a purpose to understand the chain and consequences of commercial trade on wild-harvested medicinal plants. A quantitative market research using free list surveys was used in combination with individually repeated in-depth structured and semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, Conservation Assessment and Planning Management method was used to prioritise species that are in need of conservation due to commercial trade. The results show that the chain of commercial trade of medicinal plant species begins in the forest and is then distributed to different stakeholders, such as harvesters, vendors, Traditional Healing Practitioners, consumers and exporters. The research also shows that the large urban and international demand of medicinal plant species supplied by the vendors and exporters is the major threat, specifically to destructively harvested species such as Cassia abbreviata, Zanthoxylum usambarense, Zanthoxylum chalybeum, Myrsine africana, Milicia excelsa and Prunus Africana. These medicinal plants species are up-rooted and/or ring-barked and are therefore in need of conservation. This calls for several conservation guidelines such as policy and regulations, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, education and planting of the medicinal plant species in their natural forests as well as collecting samples of medicinal