Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
using cards or mirrors in order to communicate with their ancestors so as to diagnose
illness and treatment. Sometimes, even if the disease is known, treatment varies ac-
cordingtowhatisidentifiedasthecause.Somehealersupdatetreatmentsannually,on
the advice of their ancestors, and many are blessed with healing hands; so the medi-
cinal plants they use would not be as effective if self-administered.
Despite deforestation, people living near the forest do not suggest any dramatic
change in the abundance of medicinal plants, only stating that they have to go slightly
further afield to find them. Some medicinal plants originating from secondary vegeta-
tion have even increased in abundance as a result of environmental degradation.
Although use of forest plants is generally higher in villages near the forest, some
healers living near the forest use exclusively savanna-originating medicinal plants,
and some living far from the forest use forest plants. Such patterns of medicinal-plant
use can result from the method of plant collection; some healers have plants come to
them overnight by a supernatural force, some send people to harvest them, and some
buy in the market or elsewhere. Many healers also conserve plants by drying them,
thusmakingfrequentcollectionunnecessary.Migrationisanotherfactor,somehealers
originating fromforested areas andlater movingawaybutcontinuing tousetheforest
plants that tradition passed onto them. Medicinal plant knowledge therefore changes
more according to the speciality of the healer, and the healer's origin, as opposed to
their proximity to the forest.
Although traditional healing does not appear to be dying out and Western medicine
does not seem to pose a real threat, perhaps its greatest threat is from religion. Com-
monbeliefhasitthattraditionalhealingisthedevil'sworkasitcomesfromthepower
oftheancestorsratherthanthepowerofGod.Theriskisthatyoungpeoplemayresist
the healing power they inherit. Recording traditional medicine practices enhances un-
derstandingofthecontextinwhichitisusedinMadagascar,bydistributingtheresults
to local communities, authorities and scientists. It is also necessary to increase appre-
ciation and valuation of these secondary forest products, with the aim of conservation
and sustainable natural resource management.
Samantha Cameron is co-ordinator of Feedback Madagascar's health programme in
theFianarantsoaregion.SheledanRGS-supportedexpeditionresearchingethnobot-
any
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SAFETY
