South Africa's Medicinal Plant Extinction Crisis
Understanding how traditional medicine demand is driving an extinction crisis for indigenous plants—and why one successful recovery effort reveals the immense challenge ahead.
Key Points
- ✓ More than 3,000 plant species in South Africa face elevated extinction risk, with 182 medicinal plant species on the country's IUCN Red List. The pepper-bark tree is extinct in the wild in Zimbabwe and locally extinct across parts of KwaZulu-Natal, while wild ginger exists at only 10% of its historic range.
- ✓ Traditional medicine serves as primary healthcare for 72% of South Africans through 250,000 registered traditional healers. What was once local gathering following seasonal protocols has transformed into industrial-scale trade consuming over 70,000 metric tons of plant material annually.
- ✓ Fatal harvesting methods including ring-barking, complete plant removal, and rhizome extraction prevent regeneration. Poverty drives the choice between illegal harvesting today and starvation while waiting for cultivated plants to mature, with 74% of traders lacking required permits.
- ✓ Pepper-bark's improvement from Endangered to Vulnerable required 30 years of coordinated effort and distribution of over 80,000 seedlings—demonstrating recovery is possible while revealing that current intervention rates are inadequate for the 3,000+ species facing extinction.
Growing evidence shows that traditional medicine demand is driving an extinction crisis for South Africa's indigenous plants. The country's National Biodiversity Assessment 2025 estimates more than 3,000 plant species face elevated extinction risk, with 293 requiring urgent intervention. Among these, 182 medicinal plant species appear on the country's IUCN Red List, 82 at risk of extinction in the wild.
The pepper-bark tree (Warburgia salutaris)—known as isibhaha in Zulu—is extinct in the wild in Zimbabwe and locally extinct across parts of South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province. Wild ginger (Siphonochilus aethiopicus) exists at only 10% of its historic range and is considered extinct in KwaZulu-Natal.
When SANBI interviewed 137 traditional healers across four Mpumalanga municipalities, 90% reported traveling long distances to collect medicinal plants—journeys their predecessors never made. The plants that once grew in nearby forests have vanished.
How Traditional Healers Use Medicinal Plants
Seventy-two percent of South Africans use medicinal plants regularly. This isn't alternative medicine—for millions, it's primary healthcare. The system involves 250,000 registered traditional healers who prepare medicines called muthi from plant materials.
Traditional healers perform distinct but often overlapping roles. Sangomas are spiritual diviners who diagnose illness by throwing oracle bones to communicate with ancestors. They determine whether sickness stems from spiritual causes—angered ancestors, bewitchment, or offended nature spirits. Inyangas—herbalists whose name means "people of the trees" in Zulu—prepare plant-based medicines. They possess knowledge of which plants treat specific ailments, when to harvest them according to seasons and moon phases, and how to prepare them properly. Many practitioners master both divination and herbalism.
The practice is holistic, treating physical symptoms alongside spiritual imbalances and social disharmony. Illness doesn't belong to individuals but to communities—a person's sickness may stem from disrupted relationships with family, ancestors, or the broader environment, requiring treatment addressing all dimensions simultaneously.
The plants carry profound medicinal and cultural significance. Pepper-bark tree is traditionally used to treat coughs, colds, bronchial infections, malaria, stomach ulcers, abdominal pain, tuberculosis, and other ailments. Healers smoke the intensely peppery bark for respiratory infections, use it as snuff for blocked sinuses, brew it as tea, or apply it as ointment for skin conditions. Research confirms antibacterial and anti-ulcer properties from drimane sesquiterpenoids in the bark.
Wild ginger commands even higher prices—up to R800 per kilogram in 2011, making it the most expensive medicinal plant by weight in some markets. The rhizomes are traditionally used to treat asthma, influenza, pain, inflammation, and malaria. Zulu communities use it for spiritual protection against lightning and snakes. Women chew it during menstruation for pain relief. Scientific studies confirm anti-asthmatic, anti-inflammatory, and antiplasmodial properties.
When Local Gathering Became Industrial Trade
Traditional healers once gathered medicinal plants from nearby forests and grasslands, following seasonal protocols and spiritual preparation. Harvesting was regulated through traditional practices including taboos, restrictions on collection methods, and knowledge passed from teacher to apprentice about sustainable gathering.
The shift from subsistence use to commercial trade transformed this cultural practice into competitive business. Urban population growth concentrated demand in cities like Johannesburg, Durban, and Pretoria, where sprawling muthi markets now distribute hundreds of species to healers who can no longer gather locally.
The scale is industrial. South Africa consumes more than 70,000 metric tons of medicinal plant material annually, creating at least 134,000 income-earning opportunities through trade. In KwaZulu-Natal alone, approximately 4,500 tonnes trade annually. A survey documented 231 medicinal plant species traded across Limpopo Province's markets. The Witwatersrand markets trade at least 511 species.
The majority of healers now operate far from traditional gathering practices. When SANBI interviewed healers across Mpumalanga, they found most now buy medicinal material from markets rather than gathering from wild populations—a fundamental shift from historical practice.
How Fatal Harvesting Approaches Devastate Populations
Ring-barking kills trees slowly but inevitably. Harvesters strip bark in a complete circle around the trunk, severing the phloem layer that transports nutrients from leaves to roots. The tree above the cut continues photosynthesizing for weeks or months, appearing healthy while actually dying. The roots, cut off from sugars produced by leaves, starve. The tree cannot heal a complete circumferential wound. Ring-barking is fatal.
Other methods prevent regeneration. Collectors uproot whole plants rather than harvesting sustainably. They dig up rhizomes and bulbs, removing the underground structures that would produce next year's growth. They harvest without regard for plant maturity, taking specimens before they've produced seed.
The socio-economic drivers are powerful. Seventy-four percent of traders lack required permits, but many operate illegally not by preference but by necessity. For rural harvesters with few economic alternatives, one destructive harvest produces immediate cash. Cultivation requires years of patience and uncertain income. Poverty drives the choice between illegal harvesting today and starvation while waiting for cultivated plants to mature.
Harvesters enter protected areas illegally, working at night to avoid enforcement. In the Umzimkulu Forests, gatherers constantly risk arrest or fines, yet continue because income needs outweigh legal consequences. Some employ locals on commission to collect from neighboring provinces and countries, creating supply chains that span southern Africa.
As local populations collapse, sourcing shifts geographically. The highest proportion of medicinal plants traded on the Witwatersrand came from KwaZulu-Natal. As those populations depleted, trade expanded to Mpumalanga and Limpopo, then across borders into Mozambique, Eswatini, and Zimbabwe. Cross-border smuggling became common—gatherers from South Africa traveling to neighboring countries, harvesting illegally, and transporting material back for sale in urban markets.
Prices escalate as scarcity increases. Wild ginger commanding R800 per kilogram creates financial incentives that override legal protections and conservation concerns. The economic imperative is simple: scarcity drives market value higher, which drives more aggressive harvesting, which accelerates scarcity.
Evidence of Population Collapse
Market data documents the depletion. Bark thickness in Johannesburg's medicinal plant markets decreased significantly from 1994 to 2001. Traders sold bark from progressively younger, smaller trees as mature specimens became unavailable. The trend continues—what was once harvested from 50-year-old trees now comes from saplings.
Pepper-bark faces regional extinction. The species is extinct in the wild in Zimbabwe despite once being common. In South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, it's locally extinct in some regions. Genetic research reveals the legacy of fragmentation and overexploitation—once-continuous populations now isolated in scattered refuges. Illegal harvesting escalated until even populations within Kruger National Park were targeted, with harvesters entering protected areas to strip bark from the park's remaining mature trees.
Wild ginger's collapse is starker. The species exists at only 10% of its historic range across southern Africa. Recent fieldwork in Eswatini in 2023 and 2024 found only small populations remaining, many sites heavily impacted by invasive species or overharvesting. Traditional healers confirmed that local availability has drastically diminished, forcing them to source materials from neighboring countries. In KwaZulu-Natal, wild ginger is considered extinct—functionally eliminated from one of the South African provinces where it naturally occurred.
The pattern repeats across species. Clivia miniata (Natal lily), one of the most widely traded plants in South Africa's informal medicine markets, lost over 40% of individuals over 90 years. Future projections modeling through 2050 show continuing declines as climate change, land cover change, and overharvesting compound.
Turning Harvesters Into Cultivators: The One Success Story
One species has improved—demonstrating that recovery is technically possible while simultaneously revealing the immense effort required.
Pepper-bark improved from Endangered to Vulnerable—the first plant species in South Africa to move to a lower threat category. The achievement required three decades of coordinated effort, partnerships across multiple organizations, and distribution of over 80,000 seedlings.
The program centered on transforming traditional healers from harvesters into cultivators. Starting in 2009, SANParks initiated a conservation model focusing on pepper-bark populations within Kruger National Park. Rather than criminalizing traditional healers or simply banning harvesting, the partnership between South African National Parks, the Agricultural Research Council, SAPPI, and SANBI took a different approach: mass propagation of seedlings at the Skukuza Indigenous nursery, followed by distribution to the healers who needed them.
The Endangered Wildlife Trust expanded this model beyond Kruger. The Medicinal Plant Initiative trained 205 traditional healers and harvesters in Vhembe through three-day courses incorporating demonstrations of cultivation and propagation techniques, discussions on legislation and permitting, and engagement on challenges accessing medicinal plants. Each participant received starter packs and seedlings to begin cultivating immediately. The program expanded from Limpopo to Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, and Gauteng.
The economic alternative matters. Nurseries and cultivation programs create sustainable income where illegal harvesting was previously the only option. For rural communities with limited economic opportunities, becoming a cultivator of medicinal plants offers legal livelihood. The cultivation model provides what illegal trade cannot: renewable income from the same plants year after year, rather than one-time destructive harvest.
Scientific research helped overcome resistance. Chemical analysis showed pepper-bark leaves contain the same medicinal compounds—drimane sesquiterpenoids responsible for antibacterial and anti-ulcer activity—as bark and roots. Crucially, leaf harvesting doesn't kill the tree. A healer can harvest leaves from their garden repeatedly without destroying the plant producing them. This validated sustainable alternatives using traditional healers' own knowledge frameworks.
Why One Success Story Isn't Enough
Pepper-bark's recovery required 30 years of coordinated institutional effort for a single species. More than 3,000 plant species face extinction risk, with 293 requiring urgent intervention. At current intervention rates, addressing even a fraction of threatened medicinal plants would require centuries.
Wild ginger remains Critically Endangered despite cultivation programs. Some traditional healers continue to believe only wild-harvested plants possess correct medicinal properties, perpetuating pressure on critically endangered wild populations despite cultivation alternatives and scientific evidence of phytochemical equivalence.
Economic barriers persist. Illegal trade in wild-harvested plants pays better immediately. A harvester entering a protected area illegally can gather R800 worth of wild ginger in a night. Cultivation requires years before first harvest, ongoing labor, and patience that poverty doesn't permit. For families needing income today, the economic calculus favors destructive harvesting despite long-term unsustainability.
Funding remains precarious. Many cultivation programs depend on short-term grants rather than sustained institutional support. The pepper-bark program benefited from partnerships with well-funded organizations including SANParks and corporate sponsors like SAPPI. Most threatened species lack such backing.
Global trade in medicinal plants nearly tripled from $1.3 billion in 1998 to $3.3 billion in 2018, with at least 20% of medicinal plant species used globally threatened with extinction. The market grows faster than wild populations can regenerate and faster than cultivation programs can scale.
Organizations Fighting Medicinal Plant Extinction
South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) developed Biodiversity Management Plans for six threatened medicinal species in Mpumalanga's Ehlanzeni District, engaging 137 traditional healers in collaborative conservation planning. SANBI coordinates cross-border initiatives with Eswatini and Mozambique, addressing trade that transcends national boundaries. The organization has supported distribution of over 80,000 pepper-bark seedlings to traditional healers across three decades.
Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) operates the Medicinal Plant Initiative providing cultivation training directly to traditional healers. The program trained 205 healers in Vhembe through three-day courses, distributing starter packs and seedlings to enable immediate cultivation. Geographic reach expanded from Limpopo to Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, and Gauteng. The initiative received support from the Fondation Franklinia and UK Government through the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund.
South African National Parks (SANParks) runs the Kruger National Park Pepper-bark Conservation Programme, mass-propagating seedlings at the Skukuza Indigenous nursery for distribution to traditional healers. The program operates through partnerships with SAPPI, the Agricultural Research Council, SANBI, SAEON, and SANParks honorary rangers, focusing on reducing harvesting pressure on wild populations within protected areas.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife manages protected area populations and supports cultivation initiatives in KwaZulu-Natal, where wild ginger is considered extinct and pepper-bark is locally extirpated from some regions. The organization works to protect remaining wild populations while supporting cultivation alternatives.
TRAFFIC monitors illegal plant trade globally and developed the FairWild Standard—a certification system promoting sustainable harvesting of wild plants with benefit-sharing for communities. Consumers purchasing traditional medicines or herbal products can look for FairWild certification to ensure wild plants are sustainably harvested. TRAFFIC estimates global medicinal plant trade approaches $3.3 billion annually, with much of it operating through informal, unregulated channels.
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew developed FloraGuard technology using web-crawling algorithms to monitor online trade in threatened plant species. The tool searches keywords relating to trade in threatened plants, identifying online advertisements offering these species for sale. Kew works with platforms including eBay to strengthen trading policies and prevent illegal sales, particularly for succulent plants from southern Africa where over one million illegally harvested plants have been seized since 2019.
IUCN SSC Southern African Plant Specialist Group coordinates regional conservation strategies, supporting cross-border collaboration between South Africa, Eswatini, and Mozambique. The group addresses medicinal plant trade that operates across national boundaries, recognizing that conservation efforts confined to single countries fail when trade networks span the region.
The 90% of traditional healers now traveling long distances to find plants their predecessors gathered nearby aren't making longer journeys by choice. The plants have vanished. Markets selling bark from progressively younger trees document ongoing depletion in real time.
Pepper-bark's improvement from Endangered to Vulnerable demonstrates that extinction trajectories can reverse. But the intervention required three decades of coordinated effort for a single species. The question cultivation programs cannot yet answer: can economic alternatives and propagation efforts scale fast enough to prevent collapse of the 3,000+ plant species facing extinction before harvesters strip the last mature specimens from the last accessible forests?
Frequently Asked Questions
How widespread is traditional medicine use in South Africa?
Seventy-two percent of South Africans use medicinal plants regularly through a system involving 250,000 registered traditional healers. For millions, this isn't alternative medicine but primary healthcare, with traditional healers serving as both spiritual diviners (sangomas) and herbalists (inyangas) who treat physical symptoms alongside spiritual imbalances.
What harvesting methods are driving extinction?
Ring-barking kills trees by severing the phloem layer that transports nutrients, while collectors uproot whole plants, dig up rhizomes and bulbs, and harvest without regard for plant maturity. These methods prevent regeneration, with 74% of traders lacking required permits and poverty driving the choice between illegal harvesting today and starvation while waiting for cultivated plants to mature.
How severe is the population collapse for key species?
Pepper-bark is extinct in the wild in Zimbabwe and locally extinct across parts of KwaZulu-Natal. Wild ginger exists at only 10% of its historic range and is considered extinct in KwaZulu-Natal. Market data shows bark thickness decreased significantly from 1994 to 2001 as traders sold material from progressively younger trees, with harvesting now targeting saplings.
Has any species successfully recovered?
Pepper-bark improved from Endangered to Vulnerable—the first plant species in South Africa to move to a lower threat category. The achievement required 30 years of coordinated effort, partnerships across multiple organizations, and distribution of over 80,000 seedlings to transform traditional healers from harvesters into cultivators.
Why isn't one success story enough?
More than 3,000 plant species face extinction risk, with 293 requiring urgent intervention. At current intervention rates—30 years for a single species—addressing even a fraction would require centuries. Economic barriers persist as illegal harvesting pays immediately while cultivation requires years of patience, and global medicinal plant trade tripled from $1.3 billion in 1998 to $3.3 billion in 2018.
