The trade and marketing of traditional medicines in southern and central Malawi

Malawi is one of the world’s 48 least developed countries and the population are alleged to be mostly reliant on traditional medicines. Approximately 90% of Malawians are forced by circumstances of low income to depend on the natural resource base for a living and to trade-off long-term sustainable resource use for short-term consumption of stocks. A study on the trade and marketing of traditional plant medicines in the southern and central regions of Malawi was conducted to characterise the stakeholders of the regional medicinal plant trade and to identify species that are harvested and sold both locally and internationally. Thirty traders and six border post officials were interviewed in eight Malawian districts that border with the neighbouring countries of Zambia and Mozambique. Men were the predominant traders of traditional medicine in the markets, and 90% of the respondents reported that they derived more than 50% of their households’ income from selling medicinal plants. Approximately 123 plant species were recorded during the survey and, based on frequencies, the most common species sold were: Cassia abbreviata (77% of traders), Cissus cornifolia and Aristolochia hockii (47% each), Zanha africana (37%), and Afzelia quanzensis, Combretum zeyheri and Dicoma amoena (30% each). Sixty-eight percent of the identified species were sold for roots, and 44% for bark. It also emerged that at least 26 species (24%) were being exported to southern Africa, including Mondia whitei (an Endangered species in South Africa), and that at least 73% of the respondents had sold plants to South Africa. Unregulated activities with respect to the domestic and international trade are compromising the sustainability of harvesting and consequently, the provision of sufficient ethnomedicinal plant resources in the long term. It would appear that one of the biggest interventions required in Malawi is to improve the ambiguous position allegedly held by the Malawian government towards traditional medicine in order to align policies with conservation needs to effect realistic and sustainable resource management strategies.