Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

Rachel Wynberg 69

drugs and increased coverage by health insurance companies of herbal

remedies (Grünwald and Büttel 1996). Increased demand for devil’s claw in

particular can be attributed to the proven safety and efficacy of the plant,

well-founded clinical data, an increase in patients suffering from arthritis

and substantial marketing. Continued efforts on the part of the industry to

cultivate the plant are likely, stemming from the desire to improve and

standardise pharmaceutical quality and concerns about the overexploitation

of wild populations. A key concern is that misperceptions on the part of

industry and consumers regarding wild-crafted populations will lead to

increased demand for cultivated material and a shift in production systems

from poor communities to rich farmers or multinational companies.

Direct sourcing partnerships could be a valuable strategy to develop

sustainable and fair trade sources of raw materials, including the negotiation of

long-term contracts at fixed (US$) prices. That such a strategy can work is well

demonstrated by the efforts of the SHDC Project, which has linked communities

directly to a local export firm that markets the product and sells it at a premium

price. A noteworthy feature of the project is the personal commitment of both

the exporter and importers to a fair and sustainable trade. However, experiences

from both Namibia and Botswana point to the financial difficulties of sustaining

NGOs as long-term intermediaries, the importance of private-sector partners

and the critical need for external marketing support. Tools that warrant further

investigation include the development of certification standards and a set of

specific guidelines for industries involved in trading devil’s claw that describe

specific criteria for fair trade, environmental sustainability and quality standards.

This could stimulate positive changes in current practice and provide an important

monitoring tool. Improved branding and consumer awareness is also important

to market the beneficial socio-economic impacts of the product and its links to

a specific geographical area.

CONCLUSIONS

Devil’s claw holds considerable potential as a non-timber forest product that

can both be harvested sustainably and deliver significant development benefits

to marginalized rural communities. Its occurrence on degraded lands and

opportunistic nature suggests negligible harvesting impacts on ecosystems; its

ability to regenerate after harvesting indicates opportunities for sustainable

use; and its distribution in the communal lands of the Kalahari enables households

with few other livelihood options to earn an income, albeit small, for part of

the year. National benefits are also significant, both in terms of taxes generated,

employment generation and export revenue. Furthermore, the long history of

trade in devil’s claw, its continued growth and the established safety and efficacy

of the plant suggest a reliable market upon which long-term strategies can be

developed. Increased interest in fair and sustainable trade products provides

further potential for developing niche markets and improving local prices.

Several barriers, however, impede the full realisation of the plant’s

conservation and development potential. At the local level, these include a lack

of tenure security, insufficient monitoring capacity, poor business and

management skills and low levels of organisation. Inadequate quality and resource

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