The people living in the savanna belt of West Africa are currently facing profound social and landscape changes. Traditional lifestyles and agricultural practices, such as agroforestry with multipurpose trees or the semi-nomadic pastoralism of the Sahel, are challenged by the needs of a growing population, intensified agriculture and climate change. Despite positive aspects of and many successes in development in the last few years, people in the savanna belt of West Africa are still, to a large extent, dependent on these traditional practices and the use of wild plants, e.g. for medicine, food, construction and other needs.
Looking at traditional plant use in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a landlocked, dryland country in the center of West Africa. Population structure, vegetation, climate and land use are typical for the whole region. Despite the importance of traditional plant use, the traditional practices and the plant diversity of the country have been scientifically understudied. In the last 20 years, a strong, collaborative effort has been made between multiple scientific institutions from within and outside Burkina Faso to address this gap of knowledge. Building on these resources, we have recently been able to analyze the traditional use of plants on a national scale and evaluate the importance of particular plant species.
Excitingly, the results showed that half of the 2000 plant species known to Burkina Faso were traditionally used. Most species (more than one third) were used in traditional medicine and one fifth was used as source for human food and animal fodder respectively. A “hitlist” of the most useful plant species in the country included some of the ‘parkland’ trees typical for the West African agroforestry systems, such as the Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa), Néré (Parkia biglobosa) and Tamarind (Tamarindus indica), all with a well-known economic importance However, the list also contained many species which have received less attention so far, and which are probably underestimated in their economic importance.
A stand selling Shea butter, a widely used product derived from the seeds of Vitellaria paradoxa. Photo by Stefan Porembski, African Plants – a photo guide.
The high number of plant species used in traditional medicine indicates the particular importance of plants in this field. Based on detailed information on plant use, we were able to link the use of plant species as remedy with specific health disorders. We found that most medicinal plants were used against infections, digestive disorders and genitourinary disorders. The actual pharmacological usefulness of traditional medicine depends on many factors and is highly debated, but it has been shown that the intense use of evolutionary related plant groups in multiple ethnic groups can indeed be an indicator of pharmacological activity. In our study, we found that especially plants of the Cashew family (Anacardiaceae), the Amaranth family (Amaranthaceae) and the Bushwillow family (Combretaceae) are much more often used in traditional medicine than expected because of their occurrence in the country. This can be a starting point for future bioprospecting to prove or question the pharmacological activity of the traditional medicines, benefiting the people depending on it, and for the development of new medicine (for example against multi-resistant malaria strains).
Processing of the fruits of Parkia biglobosa in Kounou, Burkina Faso. Photo by Stefan Porembski, African Plants – a photo guide.
Data useful for understanding plant-human interactions and conservation efforts
We see our results as a first step to the conservation of provisioning ecosystem services in Burkina Faso. The data gathered during the course of this project will serve as base for understanding plant-human interactions and hopefully contribute to a comprehensive conservation scheme for West African savanna vegetation which is urgently needed in the face of climate and land-use change.
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Detailed use information for all plant species in Burkina Faso
Alexander Zizka is a PhD student in evolutionary botany at the University in Gothenburg, Sweden and particularly enjoys field work in the West African savanna. Marco Schmidt is a botanist working on African floras, biodiversity databases, biogeography and savanna ecology. His present work is in the context of EU’s FP7 UNDESERT project.
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