fbpx
Harriet Botanicals
Call Us +254 208 408 888

Community Engagement and Traditional Medicine

While the spectre of overexploitation and threats to biodiversity and endangered animal species like rhinos for medicinal purposes are real, it is our conviction that it is precisely the value of traditional medicine to indigenous populations, rather than its commercial value elsewhere that will eventually provide the key to the long-term conservation of traditional medicine resources and feedstock.

In the context of Kenya, in which the demand for animal products for traditional medications is not as high as in the Asia, for example, conservation and the sustainable exploitation of traditional botanical feedstock is largely restricted to plant material available in national and community forests inhabited by indigenous peoples.

Recent studies by IUCN indicate that medical plant material is presently been harvested worldwide at rates hundreds of times time higher than natural regeneration would make up for, placing over 15, 000 species of medicinal plants under the threat of extinction. In Kenya, this ethnobotanical resource is found in the wild, in areas gazetted as forests by government agencies.

In this regard, national goals have largely been restricted to forest conservation as a blanket resource that needs to be insulated from the public. However, a more holistic approach that incorporates the dynamic value of the human element in the sustainable exploitation of botanical resources and the preservation of the entire tradition, practice and culture of traditional medicine as a national resource is necessary to preserve and grow the public health benefit currently enjoyed by over 70% of Kenyans.

Because the practice of traditional medicine is largely propagated through traditional practitioners with undocumented knowledge, blanket conservation measures that disconnect indigenous populations from the natural habitats carry the potential to disrupt the entire practice of traditional medicine into future generations, with serious ramifications to the health of the millions who presently rely almost entirely on traditional medicine.

Empowering host communities through sensitization, cultural archiving and profit sharing may indeed be the most effective long-term approach to securing sustainability and avoiding further over-exploitation by parties driven by non-community interests.

Community engagement and advocacy
Consequently, policy linkages between forest conversation agencies and the departments of health and culture structured to secure the sustainability of the tradition and practice of traditional medicine must include both the conservation of the botanical resources and the preservation of the human element that propagates the tradition and practice, without which the same would be lost to future generations.

As we seek to find better ways to secure and conserve our forests, we will need to be even more innovative in the search of a regulatory regime that will not deny millions of Kenyans the health and economic benefits of traditional medicines as already enjoyed by millions of Kenyans.
Community engagement and advocacy programs that integrate traditional knowledge and community participation into conservation programs are therefore more likely to deliver the desired impacts.

Most importantly, broader programs involving education and commercial incentivisation will be necessary as a means of growing the number of young people joining the practice of traditional medicine in indigenous communities across the country.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

NAIROBI CBD

IBEA 1919 Building, 1st Floor
Shop Number 109, Moi Avenue.
Call: +254 208408888
Text: 0794 296 279

KERICHO

Green Square Mall,
Kisumu – Busia Road
Ground Floor
Call: 0745 777 611

KISUMU

West End Mall,
Call / WhatsApp:
0708 808 441

MOMBASA

Burhani Tower,
Abdel Nasser Road,
Shop M6 Mezzanine Floor
Call: 0707 020 453

KAREN

The Waterfront Mall
1st Floor,
Natural Market
Call: 0714 184 680

NAKURU

Jeniffer Riria Hub along Kipchoge Keino Avenue/ Tom Mboya Street
Ground floor,
Shop number 017, behind Mogo Shop
Call: 020 840 8888

KISII

Jeliza Business Center,
Opposite Kisii Parish,
(shop number u3)
Call: 0706 114 381

MERU TOWN

Greenwood City Mall,
1st Floor,
Shop F34
Call: 0723 341 168

WESTLANDS

Sarit Center, Lower Ground Floor,
Opposite Post Office Entrance, next to Equity Bank Cash Point.
Call: +254 208408888
Phone: 0794 296 279

ELDORET

Zion Mall
Basement, Wing C,
Shop Number 2
Call: 0742 815 974

KITENGELA

Enchipai Business Center,
Ground Floor Shop no. 8,
Opposite Hotel Nomad,
Call: 0705 145 102

NAIVASHA

Jonka/Kaniu Building near
Cosmopolitan SACCO,
Call: 0721 265 007

EASTLEIGH SHOP

Business Bay Square(BBS)
Mall, Line Shop 10
Call: 020 8408888
Text: 0794 296 279

Shopping cart0
There are no products in the cart!
Continue shopping
0