On International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, we celebrate the enduring value of Indigenous knowledge systems in safeguarding life and health, in particular honouring Indigenous midwives.

Indigenous healing practices have protected the health and well-being of communities around the world for generations. Especially in remote areas with limited health services, communities rely on ancestral knowledge and expertise to ensure the safe delivery of babies and to treat illness. The Forest and Farm Facility supports many Indigenous groups that grow plants for health and well-being purposes and here we celebrate their vital contribution – socially, but also economically and environmentally.

 Supporting expectant mothers

In the Gambia, the FFF supports the Traditional Healers Assembly (TRAHASS) – an umbrella organization for all healers and green doctors in the country. This includes Traditional Birth Companions who provide continuous emotional, physical and cultural support to expectant mothers throughout pregnancy, labour and after they have given birth. Amongst the support they provide are natural remedies derived from plants and trees. For example, women are given locust bean fruits and leaves of the Moringa tree to eat for their high iron content to combat anaemia, whilst Gambian bush tea made from the Lippia multiflora plant and the Ntonké fruit reduce morning sickness and vomiting during pregnancy.

Many of the trees, shrubs and herbs used during pregnancy, labour and early child health can be found in a 1.5 hectare area of natural woodland allocated to TRAHASS in 2021 by the Head Chief of Foni Berefet District and the community of Somita for safeguarding medicinal plants. With support from the FFF, TRAHASS has been able to put in place measures to protect this special land from intruders and fires. They have also conducted an inventory of plant species and developed a 10-year management plan to protect these species for future generations of traditional healers to use.

In Kenya, Namelok Women Group which is supported by the FFF relies on the Indigenous knowledege of their Maasai women members to support expectant mothers. For example, during pregnancy, the bark of the East African sandalwood tree known locally as Olosesiai (Osyris lanceolata) is used to prevent vomiting. Following birth, whistling thorn (Acacia drepenolobium) is given to facilitate the delivery of the placenta, and the bark of the Olchakwai tree (Acacia etbaica) can ease a mother’s pain after delivery. In addition to other subsistence activities such as livestock rearing and traditional bead and leatherwork, the Maasai women harvest these Indigenous medicinal plants for their own use and also to sell. With support from the FFF, the women have transformed these activities into viable enterprises. 

Namelok Women Group rely on Indigenous knowledge to support expectant mothers

Facilitating good health

Growing medicinal plants under the forest canopy is another way for cooperative members to increase their household income and to adapt to climate change. The FFF supports many cooperatives worldwide that do this. For example, in Viet Nam, Tan Lac Son Agroforestry Cooperative, which is made up of Muong and Kinh Indigenous Peoples, produce jiaogulan tea which is used to treat heart disease and type 2 diabetes. By adopting sustainable harvesting techniques, the farmers have improved their yields and boosted their incomes. Meanwhile, the members of Clean Agriculture Cooperative of Tan Son in Cho Moi province cultivate Solanum procumbens, a plant that is deeply rooted in Southeast Asian traditional medicine. It is boiled and the extracts are used as a tea or tonic to treat influenza, allergic diseases, lumbago and snake-bites, amongst others.

Elsewhere in Colombia, the elders of Las Varas Indigenous community, who are part of the Corpoteva cocoa-growing cooperative, know the value of using all parts of the cocoa pod – not just the beans for chocolate. Their ancestral knowledge is being documented to pass on to future generations. Medicinal uses of the cocoa plant include using the cocoa “pulp” which protects and nourishes the bean to treat skin diseases, and slicing, drying, roasting and grinding the heart of the cocoa pod to produce a highly nutritious beverage.  

These are just some examples of Indigenous Peoples from across all three continents where FFF-supported groups are active (Latin America, Africa and Asia) who are using traditional healing practices to look after the health and well-being of their communities. In addition to fulfilling a social and cultural role, these examples show that medicinal plants can also provide household income, boost climate resilience and promote sustainable land restoration, as well as preserving valuable ancestral knowledge.