Rethinking trade of animal parts
Hunters, game ranchers and traditional healers want to establish a new trading scheme for wild animal waste products and to test the market at a pilot sale in KwaZulu-Natal this month.
Thousands of privately owned game animals from several species are hunted or slaughtered commercially for trophies, skins or meat every year – but the remnant body parts are often discarded because they have little commercial value to hunters.
However, some of these unused body parts – including bones, hooves, horns, skins, fats and oils – are in high demand by traditional healers in KwaZuluNatal and elsewhere, and a new, regulated market could help to meet this demand and also relieve pressure on wild species that are hunted or trapped illegally for traditional medicine.
A study commissioned by the department of trade & industry suggests that more than 26m South Africans use traditional medicine, mostly derived from wild plants and some animals.
The study was done in 2007 and showed that the trade was valued at about R2.9bn a year, representing 5.6% of the national health budget at the time.
Pieter Swart of the South African Taxidermy & Tannery Association, who met nearly 200 traditional healers at a wildlife compliance and awareness workshop in Ulundi last month, said hunting associations and wildlife ranchers had established a new forum to explore commercial opportunities with Zululand healers.
“We are setting up a pilot project where our unused game products can be made available for sale.
“We have a lot of products that we think healers would like to use, and which can be obtained in a legal and sustainable manner instead of going to waste,” he said.
Swart hopes to hold a pilot sale before the end of the month, either at Ulundi or Nongoma in KwaZulu-Natal, to gauge demand.
Myles Mander from the Futureworks consultancy group conducted a study in 2007 which suggested South African trade in mainly plant-based traditional medicines was worth about R2.9bn a year.
Mander also noted that traditional medicines were often more expensive than Western medicines supplied at local government clinics, dispelling the myth that traditional medicines were a cheaper alternative to conventional medicines.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says traditional medicines continue to be used in every country.
A 2011 study by WHO researchers Molly Meri Robinson and Xiaorui Zhang estimates that in much of the developing world, 70% to 95% of people still rely on traditional medicine for primary health care.
The WHO estimates at least 25% of all modern medicines are derived from medicinal plants, primarily through the application of modern technology to traditional knowledge.