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South African Herbal Healers Face Tough Environmental Regulations

South African Herbal Healers Face Tough Environmental Regulations

South Africa’s herbal healers, popularly known as sangomas, are usually the first line of defense for patients in rural areas and have for decades supplemented modern hospitals and doctors in the country.

But their trade, which involves harvesting herbs that grow naturally in the bushes, is now clashing with the country’s efforts to conserve the environment and indigenous plants.

According to an Al Jazeera report, Sangomas are now required to have a permit before going out to harvest herbs or selling them to the public.

“We’ve been picking herbs through the generations, our indigenous people of the Western Cape, without permits ,” Neville Van Schalkwy, a traditional healer who gathers plants in Cape Town’s national park, told Al Jazeera.

Demand for bush herbs is on the rise as more young people accept sangomas’ medicines as an alternative treatment methods.

Although bush doctors have been in existence for centuries, the acknowledgement of their role in the health system and in society has been a battle. The practice is still seen by others as risky and closely related to witchcraft.

Regulation of the sector remains a challenge and concerns over environmental degradation is just adding to the challenges facing the traditional medicine business in South Africa.