**1. Introduction**

The research began in 2010 as a Doctor of Education research project. For ethical considerations and to promote rural community SD, the researcher kept working and collaborating with medicinal plant merchants post data collection sharing with them information on medicinal plant multiplication and cultivation in their respective gardens. One of the motives for growing medicinal plants in home gardens, as will be confirmed in later sections, was to keep women from collecting plants in risky locations distant from their houses. **Figure 1** illustrates such a perspective from which the need analysis was formulated before the engagement.

**Figure 1** depicts how socioeconomic and sociocultural factors related to medicinal plant sustenance influence propagation of medicinal plants sustainably in supporting the livelihoods of medicinal plant sellers across generations.

The study invoked a participatory research approach, which has the empirical advantage of allowing participants to freely express their ideas about various methods of doing things at different stages of the study, including indigenous methods of propagation and the culture of medicinal plants. In the main, the study is essentially a cross-sectional analysis of the factors influencing medicinal plant sellers in rural communities of northern KwaZulu-Natal, with a specific focus on medicinal plant conservation.

**Figure 1.** *Factors affecting conservation of medicinal plants.*

#### **1.1 Problem statement**

There is a belief that science is well taught, conceptualised and learnt in a formal setting [1]. In this way, place (classroom, lecture theatre or science laboratory) is viewed as enabling the conceptualisation of science. There is little recognition of home as a place for learning Life Sciences. As ([2], p. 548) puts it, 'places are much more than just empty geographical spaces' as they contain 'spatialised, timed, sensed and embodied dimensions of nature.' Accordingly, [2] calls for 'place-based models of nature, culture and politics', which are therefore sources 'of facts, identities and behaviours'—incorporating 'notions of culture, local ways of life and human physical and psychological health'. In advocating that science learning often takes place through formal education, to Dib ([3], p. 1), formal education is a place where 'for the most part teachers pretend to teach; students pretend to learn; and institutions pretend to be really catering to the interests of students and that of the society'. He essentially disagrees with non-formal education in which two central elements guide the instructional process, namely (a) 'centralisation of the process on the student, as to his/her previously identified needs and possibilities; and (b) the immediate usefulness of the education for the student's personal and professional growth' ([3], p. 2). Distinguishing between formal and non-formal learning, [1] opine that the former is 'organised and guided by a formal curriculum, which leads to a formally recognised credential such as a high school completion diploma or a degree, and is often guided and recognised by the government at some level, while teachers are usually trained as professionals in some way'. Furthermore, he claims that, while the latter may be loosely organised, it 'may or may not be guided by a formal curriculum', and that it may be guided by either a qualified teacher or alternatively a more experienced leader.

The researcher opted not to walk away from the situation after observing the unsustainable harvesting of medicinal plants as this represented a need to help the sellers understand why and how their practices were impacting the ecosystem. It was determined that warning the sellers about the importance of harvesting plants prudently and considering future generations by taking remedial measures to prevent the extinction of many plants was important. Thus, the notion of sustainability was

established, which is simply defined as the smart use of resources and therefore medicinal plant species without negatively affecting the ability of future generations to benefit from the same [4]. In doing so, there was a need to consider the practices of medicinal plants for conserving medicinal plants, hence IKS and Natural Science ways of conserving the plants were integrated.
