Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

Michelle Cocks and Tony Dold 75

the Eastern Cape (Cocks and Dold 2000), the suffix is not used by traders.

Therefore all umemezi in the study site refers to C. flanaganii.

The bark of C. flanaganii is sold in an unprocessed state in the study site.

Consumers simply purchase a piece of dry bark, which is then ground on a

granite stone and mixed with water to form a paste that is applied daily to the

face as a skin lightener. The vernacular name umemezi is derived from the

Xhosa verb ukumemeza, meaning to ‘call aloud’ or to ‘attract attention’

(Nomtunzi Sizane personal communication).

Hilton-Taylor (1996) lists Cassipourea flanaganii as ‘rare’ in the Cape region

and globally, and as endemic to the Southern Africa floristic region. The current

plant Red Data list (Victor 2002) does not treat this species. The species has a

scattered distribution and is present in highly localised forest patches in the

Eastern Cape Province from King William’s Town in the west to southern KwaZulu-

Natal in the east. C. gerrardii occurs primarily further to the north-east of the

Eastern Cape in KwaZulu-Natal and in tropical east Africa (Pooley 1993).

The bark is currently harvested from wild populations only. Cocks (1997)

reports an extensive informal trade in the bark, both in street markets and in

amayeza stores (African chemists), in King William’s Town with demand from as

far as Cape Town. Khan’s (1996c) survey revealed that the 97.9% majority of

traders obtained C. flanaganii from the Eastern Cape. Cunningham (1993)

confirms this finding and includes C. flanaganii in a list of traditional medicines

commercially traded nationally in South Africa (1988), particularly KwaZulu-

Natal. In response to demand for umemezi, local manufacturing companies

have begun to purchase bark material in bulk, which is ground into a powder

and packaged in small plastic containers. These products are sold in stores in

the larger urban centres across the country, such as Cape Town, Gauteng and

Durban (A.B. Cunningham personal communication). This indicates an increased

demand for the product resulting in further commercialisation by means of

preprocessing and packaging.

A market survey of medicinal plants traded in the Eastern Cape (Cocks and

Dold 2000) revealed that Pirie State Forest near King William’s Town is the primary

source of traded C. flanaganii bark, a smaller quantity coming from Gatyana

Forest in the Willowvale District, approximately 150 km to the east. Pirie Forest

is state owned and managed by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry

(DWAF). It is surrounded by several villages typical of rural communities in the

province that are equivalent to peri-urban settlements (Figure 1). Families are

more or less integrated into the wider economy as they depend on cash or food

from family members in urban centres and commuters with jobs in the nearby

towns. Crop production is virtually nonexistent but families invest in small and

large stock, resulting in large numbers of livestock in the area. The villages are

situated approximately 8 km from a main access route to King William’s Town.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Pirie State Forest (32°44’S 27°17’E), classified by Low and Rebelo (1996) as

Afromontane forest, is situated between 580 m and 1200 m above sea level

with an average annual rainfall of 890 mm. The geological formations are

mudstone, shale, and sandstone with dolerite intrusions. The forest comprises

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