Strengthening cultural heritage

The Traditional Healers Assembly (TRAHASS), hosted at the National Farmers Platform The Gambia (NFPG) office in Brikama, is a legally recognised body dedicated to preserving and promoting traditional medicine in The Gambia. With 2,000 members – 500 women and 1,500 men – TRAHASS represents one of the country’s largest repositories of Indigenous health knowledge, linking generations of healers with the medicinal plant species that underpin community wellbeing.

Traditional medicine remains central to community health and cultural identity. Yet many medicinal species face threats from climate change, habitat loss and over harvesting. Knowledge traditionally passed down orally risked being lost, as elder healers aged and key species declined.

TRAHASS had long advocated for systematic documentation and conservation of traditional medicinal plant species, but lacked the resources and technical support to act at scale until the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) stepped in.

Forest and Farm Facility activities

With support from FFF, TRAHASS and NFPG implemented a structured programme to safeguard medicinal plant biodiversity and secure the knowledge systems tied to it. FFF provided funding for documentation, training in cataloguing methods and technical collaboration with national institutions, ensuring the initiative was both community driven and scientifically grounded.

From 2023-25, TRAHASS catalogued medicinal plant species across The Gambia, mapping their availability, uses and ecological needs, while identifying missing or threatened species essential to healing traditions. The resulting national catalogue preserves knowledge previously transmitted only orally and strengthens the foundation for future research and conservation.

A key milestone was the revitalisation of TRAHASS’s Traditional Medicine Forest and Gene Bank – a 1.5 hectare living conservation site in Somita village. With FFF support, 1,500 seedlings representing diverse medicinal species were planted, and assisted natural regeneration of rare species was nurtured.

FFF also supported a ten year management plan covering sustainable harvesting, propagation, monitoring, fire management and regeneration. The plan was validated by 25 healers, botanists, forest officers and community representatives, ensuring both scientific rigour and local ownership.

The gene bank now functions as a living learning centre where youth apprentices, women herbalists and healer groups exchange knowledge, build skills in plant identification and cultivation, and pass on traditions across generations.

Significance of impact

TRAHASS has produced a national medicinal plant catalogue, established a functioning 1.5 hectare gene bank with 1,500 seedlings and has secured a decade long management plan. This marks a major shift from fragile oral transmission to institutionally supported conservation.

These achievements strengthen medicinal plant availability, reinforce community health resilience and reduce pressure on wild species, as producers cultivate plants in the gene bank and on their own lands.

Conclusion

FFF support has enabled TRAHASS and NFPG to protect medicinal plant biodiversity, strengthen cultural heritage and secure traditional healing systems.

The gene bank, plant catalogue and long term management plan now stand as enduring assets for community wellbeing, ecological resilience and the preservation of Indigenous knowledge – a model ready to be expanded nationwide.

Strengthening cultural heritage

Forest and Farm Facility activities

Significance of impact

Conclusion

Further reading