Abstract:
The limited capacity of governments in developing countries to service primary health care has resulted in a rapid increase in
use of indigenous medicinal plants. This increase, together with other biological and non-biological factors, has rendered these
plants vulnerable to over-use and extirpation. Domestication is a conservation intervention that can relieve pressure on
medicinal species. In order to ensure effectiveness and sustainability of an intervention, understanding the influencing factors
is imperative. We examined the influence of gender and some socio-economic factors on domestication of medicinal plants in
the West Usambara Mountains of northern Tanzania. Participatory wealth ranking, structured and semi-structured interviews,
botanical surveys and participant observations were employed in data collection. Results showed that domestication has played
a fundamental role in conservation of medicinal plants in the study area. Forty (89%) and twelve (27%) of forty-five indigenous
plant species were domesticated on farms and around homesteads, respectively. A total of 89% of respondents (n ¼ 173) had
domesticated medicinal plants on their farms and around homesteads. Gender was the most important factor that influenced this
practice, with more male-headed than female-headed households involved in the domestication effort. This can be attributed to
social and cultural factors that, besides dispossessing women of tenure rights over resources and land, also subject them to
heavy workloads and therefore diminish the time available for plant domestication. The number of domesticated medicinal
plants also depended on age, affluence, farm size, household size and ethnicity. We recommend that agroforestry research
should focus not only on integrating forest plants in farmlands, but also on cultural, socio-economic and institutional aspects
affecting the whole system of domestication.
