Table_2_Wildlife Trade for Belief-Based Use: Insights From Traditional Healers in South Africa.DOCX

The use of animals and plants as traditional remedies for medical and magico-religious purposes has a long history of socio-cultural and economic importance in South Africa. Herein, we aim to characterize the social and economic value of wild animal species used in traditional, belief-based medicine within South Africa from traditional healers’ perspective and to explore healers’ knowledge of plant-based alternatives to wildlife-based derivatives for this type of trade. Through structured surveys with five traditional healers, we sought to gain insight into the range of wild animal species used, as well as the purpose, the perceived commercial value and the perceived availability of commonly used species. Particular focus was placed on exploring the socio-economic value of lions due to their prominence within the traditional medicine market, both in South Africa and internationally. Three of the respondents interviewed had been generating an income from traditional healing for between 30 and 50 years, and the overall monetary gain across all respondents was between ZAR 30,000 (1,800 USD) and 120,000 (7,200 USD) per annum. Our study confirms that a wide range of wild animal species are used in traditional healing practices in South Africa, for both medicinal and magico-religious purposes. The traditional healers we interviewed cited 20 common wild animals from a range of vertebrate classes including birds, reptiles, mammals, and one invertebrate. These included a number of species listed as threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Traditional healers cited 32 different uses for wild animal parts, as well as 19 alternative plant-based preparations. For lions specifically, four out of five practitioners listed lions among their top three profitable derivatives and three practitioners reported that lion had become the most rare or unavailable species in the last 5 years. Although our study is based on a limited number of interview participants, we believe that our findings provide valuable initial insights into the socio-economic drivers of traditional healing practices in South Africa, and that further research quantifying medicinal and belief-based use of wild animal ingredients and their plant-based alternatives could help to inform approaches to managing related pressures exerted on wild populations in South Africa in the future.

将动植物作为医疗与巫术与宗教用途的传统疗法，在南非拥有悠久的社会文化与经济意义历史。本研究旨在从传统治疗师的视角，剖析南非境内用于传统信仰医学的野生动物物种的社会经济价值，并探究治疗师对以植物替代野生动物衍生物用于此类交易的认知。研究通过对5名传统治疗师开展结构化访谈，以期深入了解其所使用的野生动物物种范围、用途、公认商业价值及常用物种的可获得性。鉴于狮子在南非乃至全球传统医药市场中的突出地位，本研究特别聚焦于剖析其社会经济价值。受访的5名治疗师中，有3人从事传统治疗并以此创收已有30至50年，所有受访者的年度总收入介于30000南非兰特（ZAR 30000，约合1800美元）至120000南非兰特（ZAR 120000，约合7200美元）之间。本研究证实，南非的传统治疗实践中广泛使用各类野生动物物种，用于医疗与巫术与宗教双重用途。受访的传统治疗师共提及20种常见野生动物，涵盖鸟类、爬行类、哺乳类等多个脊椎动物类群，以及1种无脊椎动物，其中包括数种被列入《世界自然保护联盟（International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN）濒危物种红色名录》的受威胁物种。治疗师们提及野生动物躯体部位共有32种不同用途，同时也提到了19种植物基替代制剂。针对狮子而言，5名从业者中有4人将狮子列为其三大高盈利衍生物来源之一，另有3人表示在过去5年中，狮子已成为最为稀缺或难以获取的物种。尽管本研究的访谈样本量有限，但我们认为其研究结果为南非传统治疗实践的社会经济驱动因素提供了宝贵的初步洞察。未来若能开展量化研究，明确野生动物成分在医疗与信仰用途中的使用情况及其植物替代方案，将有助于为管控南非野生种群面临的相关压力提供决策依据。