Development of an ethnobotanical database and mobile application with and for indigenous Ovahimba communities

The increasing awareness in conservation of natural resources has brought about the initiation of conservation projects such as the SCIONA project. One of its aims is at finding livelihood strengthening activities based on natural resources for Indigenous communities. Some of the activities suggested being the collecting of ethnobotanical data and ethnobotanical walks. Previous ethnobotanical data collected without the indigenous communities has shown to be incomplete, inaccurate and underutilized. The main objective of this project is to develop digital tools which promote the safeguarding of traditional plant knowledge by indigenous communities to improve livelihoods. A research through design methodology will be employed and the expected results being an ethnobotanical database which will be populated using the plant data collection application. Collected data will then be used to design ethnobotanical features for ecotourism.