Indigenous knowledge provides basis for local level decision making in natural resources conservation in rural communities. However, until recently little has been done to search for indigenous knowledge applied in conserving medicinal plants. This paper attempted to focus on indigenous knowledge used in natural resources; particularly medicinal plants in Rungwe District, Mbeya Region, Tanzania. Results revealed that selective harvesting of medicinal plant parts was popular by 94% of the respondents, followed by domestication of medicinal plant species (84%). The study findings indicated that adults revealed significantly higher knowledge than youth (p = 0.002) and the knowledge was significantly higher among male respondents than females (p = 0.031). Conclusively, the respondents showed to possess sound indigenous knowledge on conservation and their knowledge varied based on their socio-demographic attributes. In view of these findings, the study recommends for preservation and promotion of indigenous knowledge of conservation across the community. Likewise, there is a need of transmitting indigenous knowledge on conservation by the elders to the youth.
Cite this paper
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