Vivienne Williams

I work broadly within the field of wildlife trade and the impact of harvesting, especially African traditional medicine and, more recently, lions. Current areas of research include: the use and trade in African Lion bones and body parts across Africa and to Asia; the use and trade in vertebrates for African traditional medicine (especially birds and reptiles); using ethno-ecological information collected from informal markets and rural consumers to assess the impact of resource harvesting and the condition of their populations in the wild; the ethnobotany, ethnoecology and distribution of the root holoparasite Hydnora abyssinica across Africa, but especially in southern Africa; the trade in alien plant species for traditional medicine in South Africa; and, the life histories and scientific contributions of 'Watt & Breyer-Brandwijk’ - southern Africa's pioneers of ethnopharmacology.