Sustainable harvesting of wild rooibos

Poor man'scup of teano longerWi Id rooi bos (Aspalathuslinearis) is now aninternationally renownedchoice health beverage

Drieka Kotle, local harvester and member of the Heiveld Co-operative, SuidBokkeveld. Photo: Rhoda Louw.

by Rhoda Louw, Leslie Hill Institute for Plant Conservation, Botany Department, University

of Cape Town and Philippa Huntly, environmental writer

The Suid Bokkeveld, Northern Cape.Reproduced with kind permission from theHeiveld Co-operative from Heiveld OrganicRooibos Tea: Produced with Pride. Map:Bettina Koelle.

154 September 2006 Veld&Flora

For centuries veld tea or 'wild rooibos'has been harvested from the leavesof Aspalathus linearis, fermented andbrewed as tea. These days most rooibos

comes in tea bags, and is produced invast plantations. The rooibos that mostof us are familiar with was selectedfrom wild rooibos early in the twen­

tieth century, and is a fast growingsub-species of Aspalathus linearis thatproduces prolific amounts of seed, anddies after fire.

The wild rooibos of the Suid Bokkeveld

is slower growing than the cultivatedvariety, and re-sprouts from the rootsafter fire. It produces relatively littleseed. Long regarded as the 'poor rela­tive' and not highly valued because ofthe hard work involved in harvesting

it, most wild rooibos is blended withcultivated rooibos to enhance its flavourand colour.

Veld tea has long been an important

resource for the poor. According to OomKoos Paulse of the Suid Bokkeveld,during the fifties when the 'colouredpeople had nothing', the tea sustainedthem when they could not afford to buy

coffee, and he remembers his mother

sending him out into the veld to harvestveld tea.

Members of rural communities in theSuid Bokkeveld of the Northern Capeorganised themselves into a small-scaleproducer co-operative during 2000.

Before 2002 when the Heiveld Co­operative launched wild rooibos on themarket as a unique niche product, veld

tea had no unique value in the trade oramongst consumers. Four years later,what used to be the rural 'poor man'scup of tea' is now a choice health bever­age internationally, having found par­ticular favour in the European market.

What is rooibos?Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) is a fyn­

bos plant species endemic to the CapeFloristic Region. In its wild state itsnatural distribution is only along the

western and southern coastal interiorof South Africa. It is one of 278 species

in the genus Aspalathus. The cultivatedrooibos on which the national industryis based was selected in the CederbergMountains and propagated from seed.

All brands of rooibos available in SouthAfrican supermarkets (and even manyin health shops) are produced from cul­tivated rooibos.

According to local harvesters in theSuid Bokkeveld, wild rooibos is har­dier and more resistant to drought,pests and diseases than its cultivatedcounterpart. There are also notabledifferences in the lifespans of wild andcultivated rooibos - the wild bush canlive up to between fifteen and fiftyyears while the cultivated plants onlylive for about six to twelve years. Since2003, prolonged dry spells in the SuidBokkeveld region have caused declinesin the productivity of rooibos planta­tions, and cultivated plants are nowploughed up after four to six years.

Threats to wild rooibosAs local and international markets forRooibos continue to grow, more land isconverted to plantations for cultivatedrooibos. Over-grazing and alien plantinvasion are also problems in certainareas where natural populations occur.

Climate change is a growing threat.Although drought is characteristicof the area, the 2003-2006 droughtwas the most severe in living memory.Changes in the weather appear to beconforming to the climatic predictionsfor the area: declining average annualrainfall, higher average temperaturesand changes in rainfall patterns, all ofwhich impact on the plants' natural lifecycles.

The uncontrolled harvesting of wildrooibos is also a major threat in someareas. Growing market demand for rooi­bos has encouraged some producersand harvesters to over-exploit the wildtea. Unsustainable harvesting practic­es include cutting too much off eachbush, and cutting individual bushes toooften. In this economically marginalizedregion where the main source of incomeis gained from seasonal labour, there issignificant economic pressure to over­harvest rooibos from the wild.

Research can helpIn response to these threats, a proac­tive organisation of small-scale rooibosproducers and harvesters in the SuidBokkeveld region, the Heiveld Co-opera­tive, asked for research to be done intothe sustainable harvesting of wild rooi­bos. The farmers and harvesters want­ed to examine their local practices toascertain the best way to achieve sus­tainable production. In collaborationwith a local NGO, the Environmental

Monitoring Ground (EMG), the HeiveldCo-op approached the Leslie HillInstitute for Plant Conservation atthe University of Cape Town's BotanyDepartment. Initial funding for theresearch was secured from the SouthAfrican Netherlands Programme forAlternatives in Development (SANPAD)and subsequently from the TableMountain Fund (WWF). MSc. studentRhoda Louw carried out research onthe sustainable harvesting of wild rooi­bos tea in the Suid Bokkeveld regionwith support from local NGOs EMG andINDIGO development & change.

RIGHT: Daniel Fortuin harvesting cultivated rooibosin the Suid Bokkeveld. Photo: Timm Hoffman.

BELOW: Local rooibos harvester Klaas Paulse.

TOP: Fellow researchers. Small-scale rooibosproducer Koos Koopman from Heiveld Co-opera­tive (left) and author, M.Sc. (Botany) studentRhoda Louw (right) did research into sustainableharvesting practices for wild rooibos in the SuidBokkeveld, Northern Cape.

BOTTOM: Heiveld Co-operative member KoosPaulse shows how wild rooibos was traditionallyplucked by hand for household use. Photo: TimmHoffman.

BELOW: A handful of the real stuff: wild rooibosafter cutting. Photo: Timm Hoffman.

ABOVE: Hendrik Hesselman with grandson Angeloharvesting wild rooibos with asickle on afarm in the Suid Bokkeveld. Photo: Bettina Koelle.

THETABLE MOUNTAINFUND

~WWF

approach proved most successful andsteps were taken to conserve the rooi­bos by the producers and their organi­sation. Participation in the research

also helped local harvesters to man­age and market their product moreeffectively.

Certification and commercialsuccessThe key to the commercial success of

the Heiveld Co-operative's marketingof wild rooibos has been the organ­isation's commitment to sustainablefarming practices and social justice.The product is certified organic andbiodiversity friendly by Naturland, a

private international standard. Nothingartificial is used, and the harvest areasare maintained in pristine state. Unlike

cultivated organic rooibos, wild rooibosis not just healthy for the consumer:

it is good for the environment as well.The Heiveld Co-op has reached a niche

market of consumers who are willingto pay more for quality food from ahealthy environment, and now supplieswild rooibos to a range of shops andsupermarkets in Britain and France. In

South Africa, Heiveld Wild is becomingincreasingly popular.

The Heiveld's products are alsocertified by the Fairtrade LabellingOrganisation, indicating that the prod­uct has been harvested and produced

in a socially just way. This means thatall who participate in the productionof a fairly traded product are ethicallytreated and can earn a fair income.By ensuring higher producer prices

for high quality rooibos the HeiveldCo-operative enables its members toimprove their livelihood conditions and

at the same time promotes sound man­agement practices of wild rooibos andits natural habitat.

Educating consumers to choose prod­ucts that are produced sustainablyis a daunting task, but the Heiveld'sexperience shows that it is possible topersuade consumers to support envi­ronmental conservation and sustain­

able development.~

AcknowledgementsThanks to the Table Mountain Fund (TMF, WWF­SA) and South African Programme for Alternativesin Development (SANPAD) for financial support.Many people helped in this project including KoosKoopman, Koos Paulse, Timm Hoffman, NoelOettle and Bettina Koelle.

Rhoda's conclusions were based onthe rich knowledge of local harvest­ers as well as from the scientific field

observations and experiments on rooi­bos farms in the Suid Bokkeveld. Mr.Koos Koopman and Mr. Koos Paulsewere key participants in the research,and offered their time, knowledge and

advice during monthly fieldtrips. In theprocess, Rhoda and the local harvest­ers were able to learn from each other,

and the final results were a collabora­tive effort. Their field research indicatedthat re-growth and reproduction of wild

rooibos tea are affected by how low tothe ground the plants are harvested, inwhich season they are harvested andthe plants' natural life cycles. Their

recommendations for sustainable har­vesting of wild rooibos in the SuidBokkeveld region include:

• Harvesting once every two years innormal years, and less frequentlyduring years of drought.

• Harvesting wild rooibos during sum­mer, as winter harvesting may causethe plants to produce less seed anddeplete the plants' undergroundnutrient reserves. Plants harvestedin autumn were most affected by

pests.

• Harvesting 60-70% of the bush,or less during periods of droughtstress or where plants grow in anarid area.

The results were shared with farm­

ers and local harvesters at meetingsand other community gatherings.Participating farmers were often askedto present their findings at these occa­

sions and at relevant conferences too.The 'participatory action research'

"Unlike cultivated organic

rooibos, wild rooibos is

not just healthy for the

consumer: it is good for

the environment as well."

BELOW: Wild rooibos (foreground) in the SuidBokkeveld has a darker colour than cultivated rooi­bos (background). It is common practice in theHeiveld to plough around existing wild plants whenre-planting cultivated rooibos in plantations.Photo: Rhoda Louw.