The article is based on the study that examined the harvesting practices employed by the Traditional Health Practitioners (THPs) and their implications towards the conservation of natural resources used for traditional medical practice. Based on this aim, the main objective of the study was to determine the impact of urbanisation on the demand for and supply of natural capital (biodiversity) for traditional medical practice and health care. The study was informed by the Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF), which is based on the premise that the poor people (especially the rural poor) and their needs must be put at the centre of development interventions. The study was conducted in Palapye, Lecheng, Goo-Tau, Majwaneng and Lerala, a set of settlements lying on an approximate urban-rural continuum in central-eastern Botswana. The THP key informants (112), representatives from the Department of Forest and Range Resources (2) and Tshwarang-Ka-Natla (an organisation harvesting resurrection plant or Myrothamnus flabellifolius (2) were purposefully selected for interviews due to their relevance. A semi-structured interview schedule was administered to the informants. Furthermore, two-decades (1990-2010) satellite images were analysed to establish changes in the area covered by woodland. The majority of the interviewees reported unsustainable harvesting practices characterised by hoarding, excessive debarking and uprooting, especially towards the urban end of the continuum, which was presented as one of the involuntary outcomes in the SLF. The physical growth of Palapye and increased demand for medicinal plants promoted the unsustainable harvesting practices with less regard to conservation strategies along the continuum. The woodland intensity decline was observed over the study area, from the rural towards urban end of the continuum. The THPs also reported the existence of local conservation and management strategies which could serve as useful entry points towards a sustainable supply of medicinal plants in the area. Therefore, it can be conclusively inferred that as areas urbanize, there is a relative increase in competition, and overexploitation of resources such as medicinal plants, which in turn promote unsustainable harvesting practices.

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