The role of the informal trade in medicinal plants in sustaining livelihoods: a case study of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, Eastern Cape

The commercialisation of natural resources such as medicinal plants is a method that is increasingly being used by poor people in developing countries, as a means of generating an income. Increasing economic hardship and lack of employment opportunities in the formal sector of the economy in South Africa have led many urban dwellers to seek alternative ways of meeting their everyday livelihood needs. However, although the contribution of the trade in medicinal plants to subsistence economies has been widely recognised in a number of countries, few studies have examined the significance of the medicinal plant trade to the livelihoods of poor and marginalised people. In this study, the medicinal plant traders who operated in the informal sector of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality were interviewed to investigate the role of the trade in sustaining their livelihoods. The findings of the research indicate that although the income from the trade was modest, it contributed substantially to the total household income of the traders and the medicinal plant trade offered other non-financial benefits as well. Without the income generated from the medicinal plant trade, many traders and their families would be destitute and thus the trade is vital to the well-being of these people.