Biocultural Protocol of the Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association

The Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association, comprising over 350 healers in South Africa's Bushbuckridge area, has established this protocol to protect their traditional knowledge and ensure the sustainable use of medicinal plants. The association highlights threats to their livelihoods, including biodiversity loss, lack of benefit-sharing from researchers, and discrimination. They advocate for secured access to medicinal plants in communal and protected areas, calling for partnerships with conservation agencies like SANParks. The protocol mandates that any access to their knowledge or biological resources by researchers or commercial bioprospectors must be approved by their Executive Committee through a process of prior informed consent, community deliberation, and ancestral consultation, adhering to both customary and South African domestic law.

• The Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association consists of over 350 healers from Sepedi and Tsonga communities in the Bushbuckridge area, located within the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Region (K2C) across Mpumalanga and Limpopo, South Africa.
• Healers employ sustainable harvesting methods guided by spiritual values and customary laws to prevent over-harvesting, such as taking only small samples, covering roots after collection, and adhering to seasonal collection rules.
• The association faces significant barriers to accessing medicinal plants across three land types: traditional leaders may demand unrealistic payments for communal land; regulations and costs hinder access to protected areas like Kruger National Park and Mariepskop Forest Reserve; and private land is generally off-bounds.
• The association reports systemic discrimination from police, who may arrest healers if a patient dies, from Christian institutions that view their practices as inconsistent with faith, and from medical clinics that warn patients against using traditional medicines.
• To improve conservation, the association is collaborating with South African National Parks (SANParks) at the Skukuza Indigenous Plants Nursery to identify priority medicinal species and is engaging in the 'Warburgia Conservation Programme' to protect the endangered Pepperbark tree.
• Any access to traditional knowledge or biological resources by academic researchers or commercial bioprospectors must be approved by the Executive Committee via a process of community deliberation and ancestral consultation, requiring prior informed consent and adherence to BABS Regulations.
• The protocol grounds its claims in South African law, specifically citing Section 24 of the Constitution, the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), and the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act (NEMPAA) to argue for the right to participate in environmental governance and sustainable resource use.

APA

Natural Justice (n.d.). Biocultural Protocol of the Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/BCP-Kukula-Traditional-Health-Practitioners-Association-English.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. Biocultural Protocol of the Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association. n.d. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/BCP-Kukula-Traditional-Health-Practitioners-Association-English.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=Biocultural Protocol of the Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/BCP-Kukula-Traditional-Health-Practitioners-Association-English.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljusticendbiocultural, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{Biocultural Protocol of the Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/BCP-Kukula-Traditional-Health-Practitioners-Association-English.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }