The South African botanical industry can become a global force, not only for its rare and powerful plants, but for a new standard of ethical innovation that includes traditional knowledge communities as essential partners in the value chain.
As global demand for traceable, sustainably sourced and scientifically validated ingredients continues to grow, the conversation is shifting from compliance to collaboration and from extraction to meaningful partnership.
The ethical sourcing conversation has been framed in terms of risk for too long: the risk of non-compliance, the risk of reputational damage, the risk of failing to meet evolving consumer expectations around transparency and traceability.
But there is a more powerful story to tell: partnering with traditional knowledge communities is not a liability for manufacturers, but a value-generating asset for everyone involved.
The Skills and Legacy Already Exist in Communities
The communities who hold traditional knowledge about South Africa’s indigenous botanicals are not simply custodians of the past. They possess deep, multigenerational expertise in plant identification, harvesting, processing and understanding the environments in which these plants thrive: skills that the commercial botanical industry depends on but rarely acknowledges as scientific capability.
They are the descendants of the original discoverers of the botanical properties that the global cosmetics, flavour and fragrance industries now seek to commercialise.
And therein lies the opportunity: a future in which the next generation of ethnobotanists and organic chemists are the descendants of those same discoverers. Imagine young people from traditional knowledge communities becoming conservation partners, growers, propagation specialists, traceability participants, researchers, technicians, processors, entrepreneurs and contributors to accurate ingredient storytelling.
Industry Benefits When Communities Are at the Forefront of Science
When industry invests in meaningful partnerships that bring communities into the forefront of science, everyone benefits.
Traditional knowledge holders gain access to scientific training, formal qualifications, and participation in the commercial value chain.
Industry gains access to deep botanical insight, a more diverse talent pipeline, and the ability to tell an ingredient story that is not just traceable but genuinely inclusive.
Velden Botanicals, a science-led botanical ingredient manufacturer with sourcing and manufacturing operations in Cape Town, South Africa and a Geneva, Switzerland base supporting European markets, has been working with traditional knowledge communities to explore how this relationship can be built on more than contractual obligations.
“Ethical sourcing may begin with compliance, but it is built through meaningful relationships where heritage, science and commercial value support the dignity, visibility and upliftment of communities,” says Mary-Ann Venter, Managing Director of Velden Botanicals.
“A permit can authorise access to biological resources. An agreement can define obligations. But neither automatically creates a meaningful relationship. And without that relationship, the industry misses the full potential of what genuine collaboration can deliver.”
From Extraction to Co-Creation
South Africa has one of the most advanced access and benefit-sharing frameworks in the world, supported by the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEMBA), the country’s bioprospecting regulations, and the Nagoya Protocol.
These mechanisms recognise both those who provide access to biological resources and the communities whose traditional knowledge contributes to bioprospecting.
But, explains Venter, a significant challenge remains: as botanicals move through the value chain – from growers and harvesters to processors, researchers, ingredient suppliers, formulators and brands – commercial value can increase substantially while the communities become less visible.
“This is where the distinction between physical traceability and ethical traceability becomes important. Physical traceability tells us where a plant comes from. Ethical traceability goes further – to include species identity, harvesting methods, processing, biodiversity impact, traditional knowledge, consent, and how benefits flow through the value chain.
“The most credible African botanical ingredients of the future will not be those with the most romantic origin stories. They will be those whose identity, efficacy, environmental impact and human relationships can all be traced with equal confidence.”
A Shared Future Benefits Everyone
Benefits that flow from genuine partnership may include financial returns, but they can also include scientific and technical education, internships, cultivation and processing skills, quality-control and traceability training, biodiversity monitoring, conservation participation, youth opportunities and enterprise development. These opportunities must be co-designed with communities rather than prescribed for them.
“Meaningful benefit sharing is communities and commercial partners determining together what value, participation and long-term opportunity should look like,” says Venter.
Looking ahead, traditional knowledge holders should not be framed only as historical beneficiaries. They can become conservation partners, growers, propagation specialists, traceability participants, researchers, technicians, processors, entrepreneurs and contributors to accurate ingredient storytelling.
“If our industry gets this right, the South African botanical industry can be the global leader not only for its rare and powerful plants, but for a new standard of ethical innovation,” concludes Venter.
Our next ethnobotanists and organic chemists could be the descendants of the original discoverers. That is an epic story and an extraordinary asset.”