Community-based cultivation of commercially used MAPs and their integration in home healthcare in Bunza village, MpigiDistrict, Uganda.

 

Bunza, a village in Kalamba, Mpigi district, central Uganda, is an impoverished community with low earnings and poor access to healthcare services such as clinics. The people rely mainly on MAPs to meet their healthcare needs, especially for common minor complaints and to treat malaria. Some MAPs have become commercialized and are traded to Kampala, about 30 kilometres away, with the result that some have been over-harvested and are now locally endangered. An example is the small tree Psorospermum febrifugum, the trunk and root bark of which has gained a reputation for effectiveness in treating skin infections and for body nourishment.

 Today’s market price in Kampala for dried Psorospermum bark is TSh5 000-10 000 (US$3-6) per kilo – providing an opportunity for collectors to make good money in the local context. Another example is Albizia coriaria, the trunk bark of which the active ingredient is found in many locally produced ointments used for skin infections. 

Albizia coriaria became increasingly the target of destructive exploitation as it replaced the dwindling Psorospermum febrifugum.

 A project set up by Plantlife International in the village of Bunza sets out to conserve and promote sustainable access to MAPs in Bunza for the benefit of local healthcare and livelihoods. More specifically two of the primary objectives focus on i) the development of a village nursery for MAPs, including training for the community on the collection of seed from wild plants and the raising of seedlings and ii) importantly training local community members to plant out seedlings from the nursery into their farms or back into the wild in order to enrich wild populations