The “Marché des Fétiches” is situated in Akodessewa in the east of Lomé, the capital city of Togo (Segniagbeto et al. 2013). Since the late 1990s, the “Marché des Fétiches” has grown to be the largest market for traditional medicine in West Africa (Segniagbeto et al. 2013). Although bush meat is sold at other markets in Lomé, it has not been openly observed for sale at the “Marché des Fétiches” (Segniagbeto, pers. comm.). The market ultimately services the urban population from the city, as well as rural and urban healers and consumers from neighbouring areas seeking to purchase products which they are unable to source locally (Segniagbeto et al. 2013). The market was moved from Bè market “Marché de Bè” to Akodessewa in 1998 and, since 2013, has also operated as a tourist attraction. As such, the throughput and turnover of some wildlife derivatives may be low in comparison to other markets elsewhere (with parts of some species remaining at stalls for years, serving as ornaments to draw tourist attention, with only small pieces being sold at irregular intervals). Wildlife trade is conducted openly at the market, even though some species are protected under national legislation. For example, Segniagbeto et al. (2013) reported the sale of several reptile species [e.g. marine turtles (Chelonioidea) and pythons (Pythonidae)] that were legally protected in Togo under Article 62, Section 2, Chapter II of law N° 2008-005, regulating environment protection and wildlife conservation.

Interviews were conducted by four local field staff asking a set of predetermined questions that included open-ended, closed and multiple-choice questions (see Appendix 2). Interviews were conducted in Ewe, Fon and French and later translated into English. Surveys were carried out with vendors at five of the eight stalls that were in operation at the time. Vendors were interviewed once in September (22^nd–23^rd) 2018 on trade in wildlife and a second time in February (19^th–20^th) 2019 on plant-based alternatives. Vendors who were willing to participate in the study were identified through a process of chain referral (Newing 2011), whereby participants recommended other potential participants or persuaded others to take part. In accordance with the British Sociological Association Statement of Ethical Practice (BSA 2017), informed consent was obtained verbally from every survey participant prior to the interview, participants were made aware of their rights to voluntarily participate or to decline, no identifying participant or household data were collected and the database collated was entirely anonymous. In addition, vendor stands were coded in the database and names not reported to further protect study participants from harm or discrimination (St. John et al. 2016).

Specifically, vendors were asked to identify and rank the 10 wild animals (using local common names and excluding invertebrates) that they currently considered to be the most profitable (with wildlife body parts and live animals considered separately) and the 10 wild animals that they considered to have most increased in rarity (and therefore inferred reduced availability) over the past five years. Vendors were also asked to provide additional information including the wildlife body parts sold, their minimum and maximum price, estimated number of units sold (in the last year, last five years and last 10 years) and their intended medicinal / spiritual purpose. Interviews also involved additional questions focused on “Python” (Python spp.) and “Pangolin” (Manidae spp.) as these common names were most commonly cited as being the most profitable wildlife species sold as derivatives at the market following initial questions (see Appendix 2). Python/pangolin-specific questions focused on specific body parts sold, purpose and price per item, source locations, estimated number of animals sold, customer type [tourists (1 visit), casual customers (< 5 visits per year) and regular customers (> 5 visits per year)] and species availability (a mean “availability score” was calculated based on respondents’ answer to the question on how available pangolin / python is now, compared to five years prior) (see Appendix 2).

The same vendors were also asked questions related to the sale of plants as traditional medicine (see Appendix 2). Initial questions focused on whether they had any awareness of plant-based items that could be used to treat medical and/or spiritual issues and, if so, could they identify the three most common plant-based items sold and state their purpose. They were also questioned regarding whether they themselves sold any plant-based items, if not why this was the case and, if so, to provide an estimate of the proportion of their sales that involved plant-based items. Vendors were also specifically asked about their awareness of any plant-based items that could be used as direct replacement for “Python” (Python spp.) and “Pangolin” (Manidae spp.). The availability of plant-based items at a herbal market in Lomé was confirmed using local common names (see below) provided by vendors.

For both wildlife and plants, local common names provided by vendors in Ewe and Fon were translated into English. A list of inferred species and their respective scientific names were assigned to each common name based on the documented presence of wild populations in Togo, according to Amori et al. (2016) and Segniagbeto et al. (2007, 2011, 2014, 2015). Where taxonomy differed in more recently published assessments, we used scientific names according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2020, hereafter the IUCN Red List). For all species, information regarding their conservation status was also gathered from global species assessments on the IUCN Red List because national level assessments are not yet available for Togo. Threat status was recorded in accordance with the 2001 IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria system (version 3.1) as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), Vulnerable (VU), Near Threatened (NT), Least Concern (LC) or Data Deficient (DD). For all species, information regarding their international legal trade status was gathered from the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna website (https://www.cites.org).

We used descriptive statistics to describe patterns and trends in the data to determine if the frequency of species and type of wildlife product, cited as being the most profitable body part, were distributed similarly. Statistical analysis was carried out using R statistical software version 3.4.1 (R Core Team 2017). Wilcoxon-signed rank tests were used to compare cost between medicinal and spiritual sales and a Spearman correlation was used to test for a relationship between product cost and the number of items sold (please note, costs were not adjusted to allow per kg comparison). Monetary values were reported in West African CFA Francs (CFA) and converted to US dollars (USD) using 1 CFA = 0.0017 USD (conversion rate as of 21.06.19, https://www.xe.com). To provide a preliminary visual overview of the types of uses for animals and/or their derivatives sold, uses communicated by the traders were simplified, summarised and then categorised into short word strings. The words in the strings were hyphenated in places to keep them together to generate word clouds produced by the “wordcloud” package in R in which the sizes of the words are proportional to the frequency with which the words (i.e. uses) occurred (i.e. were mentioned by traders). The packages “tm”, “SnowballC” and “RColorBrewer” were also used to create the word clouds (cf. Forrester et al. 2017). A word cloud was generated for the number of times a common name was associated with a use, thereby indicating the animals with the most number of uses mentioned by the traders. We did not attempt to categorise uses into themes or to carry out an in-depth thematic analysis, due to consideration of content variability (i.e. vendor answers relate to both product value and rarity of a range of different types of products that likely differ in their uses) and small sample size (five vendors interviewed). The reported frequency in the word clouds reflects both the number of vendors using a particular word and the number of times the same word was used by a vendor. Therefore, the resulting word clouds, provided herein, cannot be used to distinguish between words that were used repeatedly by only a single vendor and those that were used repeatedly by several vendors.

A total of eight of the ten different stated pangolin body parts are used for medicinal purposes according to the vendors who participated in this study (Fig. 3). Three of the five vendors referred to the use of pangolin “scales” and two to the use of pangolin “foot”, the “entire animal”, “head” or “penis” (Fig. 3). With regards to medicinal use, a total of nine different treatments were cited; however, the treatment of asthma was most frequently cited by vendors (n = 5 / 15 responses; 33%) (Fig. 4a). Vendors stated that the sale of an entire pangolin could fetch up to 51 USD and a penis up to 43 USD (mean price per body part and purpose shown in Fig. 3).

Figure 3.

Frequency of cited purpose and body part used for the two focal species “Pangolin” and “Python” with information on average prices in USD provided in the blue cells. Blank cells refer to body parts that were mentioned by vendors but no price information was provided. Shading of the blue cells reflects frequency with darker blue being more frequent.

Each of the five vendors reported a different pangolin body part used for spiritual purposes: the “entire animal”, “foot”, “head”, “sex organ” or “tongue” (Fig. 3). Two vendors reported that, with regards to spiritual use, pangolin body parts were used to remove a curse; the other three vendors each gave different spiritual uses: “luck”, “brings money” and “protection” (Fig. 4a). Vendors stated that the sale of 10 scales could fetch up to 3 USD and a head up to 9 USD (means shown in Fig. 3). The mean cost across all body parts was higher when sold for spiritual purposes (13.8 ± 21 USD) than for medicinal purposes (10.3 ± 11.8 USD), but was not significantly different (W = 17.5, P > 0.05).

Figure 4.

Word cloud of the cited medicinal and spiritual purposes of pangolin (n = 19 total responses) a and python (n = 28 total responses) b provided by vendors. Size of text is proportional to frequency of words in interviews. Frequency reflects both the number of vendors using the word and the number of times the word was used by the vendor.

With regards to reported source country, two of the vendors stated that they source pangolin derivatives from within Togo, all of the vendors stated that they source pangolin derivatives from Benin, one of the vendors stated that they source them from Ghana and four of the vendors stated that they source them from Nigeria. Three vendors stated that they source pangolin derivatives directly from hunters and three that they source them from middlemen. On average, vendors stated that they sold the equivalent of 30 pangolins over the last year, 137 over the last five years and 281 over the last 10 years. The mean availability score of pangolins over the last five years was 4.5 with three of the vendors stating that there were “quite a lot less” pangolin available compared to five years previous. Vendors identified four different local common names (“Kangao”, “Midohoungbe”, “Olikpekpe” and “Tchechema”) with reference to plant species that could be sold in place of pangolin derivatives for medicinal and/or spiritual purposes (Suppl. material 2).

All of the 12 different stated python body parts are used for medicinal purposes, according to the vendors who participated in this study (Fig. 3). Four of five vendors reported selling python “bones”, the “entire animal” and python “oil” for medicinal purposes, two vendors reported selling the “eyes”, “head”, “tail” and “tongue” (Fig. 3). With regards to medicinal use, a total of ten different treatments were cited; however, general “protection” (n = 5 / 20; 25%) was most frequently cited by vendors, followed by use of oil for massages (Fig. 4b). Vendors stated that the sale of an entire python could fetch up to 26 USD, bones and a spoonful of oil up to 9 USD (means shown in Fig. 3).

A total of six of the 12 different python body parts are used for spiritual purposes, according to the vendors who participated in this study (Fig. 3). Two of the five vendors reported selling the “entire animal” (n = 2 / 5; 40%) and one each the “blood”, “intestines”, “scales” and “tail” (Fig. 3). Two specific spiritual uses were given for python body parts: witchcraft and as anti-venom; the ability to protect against witchcraft being most frequently cited by vendors (for all python body parts; n = 7 / 8; 88%) (Fig. 4b). Vendors stated that the sale of a spoonful (5 ml) python blood could fetch up to 26 USD and intestines could fetch up to 9 USD (Fig. 3). The mean cost across all body parts was higher when sold for spiritual purpose (10.3 ± 9.2 USD) than for medicinal purposes (5.2 ± 3.2 USD) but was not significantly different (W = 22, P > 0.05).

One of the five vendors stated that they do not sell pythons, because it is considered as a sacred animal by the “Pedah” ethnic group. The four vendors that did sell pythons reported that they sourced them from within Togo, from Benin and from Nigeria. One of these four vendors also stated that they source pythons from Ghana. On average, vendors reported that they have sold the equivalent of 109 pythons over the last year, 338 over the last five years and 675 over the last 10 years. The mean availability score of pythons over the last five years was 4.5 with two vendors stating that there were “quite a few less” and two that there were “quite a lot less” available compared to five years previously. Vendors identified four different local common names (“Akouema”, “Canabis”, Djokotche” and “Zodi”) with reference to plant species that could be sold in place of python derivatives for medicinal and/or spiritual purposes.

A summary of the cost per body part, sources (both from where and from whom), sales and availability scores of the two focal species are shown in Figure 3 (see also Appendix 2). The most expensive species, according to the five vendors interviewed, was the pangolin (the entire dead animal) sold for spiritual (51 USD) and medicinal purposes (32.3 USD). The most frequently sold of the two species over the last ten years was the python (their heads and as a live animal). For both species, Benin was cited most frequently as the source (by all five vendors), followed by Nigeria (four vendors), Togo (two vendors) and Ghana (one vendor). For both python and pangolin, products were sourced more often directly from hunters, rather than from a middleman, and by “regular customers” rather than locals or tourists buying out of curiosity.

“Pangolin” was identified as the most commercially viable wild animal derivative by vendors interviewed during our study. Its increased rarity was also suggested by two of the five vendors. This group of African and Asian scaly mammals is considered to be “the most heavily trafficked wild mammal in the world”, used predominantly as traditional medicine and food, but also in rituals, art and magic amongst communities across Africa (Soewu and Sodeinde 2015) and Asia (e.g. Mahmood et al. 2012). By collating local-scale studies, Ingram et al. (2018) found that pangolins are hunted and observed at wildlife markets throughout West and Central Africa and that pressure from hunting has increased. Mounting evidence suggests that, as the availability of Asian pangolins declines and international trade flows increase, traders are increasingly supplying the currently more abundant and less expensive African pangolins to meet Asian demand (Challender and Hywood 2012).

All four African species [the “Endangered” White-bellied (Phataginus tricuspis) (Pietersen et al. 2019a), the “Vulnerable” Black-bellied (Phataginus tetradactyla) (Ingram et al. 2019), the “Endangered” Giant ground (Smutsia gigantea) (Nixon et al. 2019) and the “Vulnerable” Temminck’s ground pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) (Pietersen et al. 2019b)] are currently considered to be threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN Red List (IUCN 2020) and commercial international trade was effectively banned in 2016 (CITES 2016). Clearly, any trade in pangolin parts at the “Marché des Fétiches” represents a potential conservation concern. Although only the white-bellied pangolin is extant in Togo, trade at the “Marché des Fétiches” likely also involves the black-bellied and the giant ground pangolin, given that vendors stated that they also source pangolins from Ghana. In addition, there are a number of animal welfare issues associated with pangolin hunting practices, for example, it can take hours to successfully extricate a pangolin from its burrow or tree den during capture and transport and also concerns remain that a proportion may still be alive when the boiling process begins (D’Cruze et al. 2018).

“Python” was identified as the second most commercially viable wild animal derivative by vendors interviewed during our study. Its perceived increased rarity was also stated by one of the five vendors. Two species of python are known to occur in Togo, the Northern African rock python (Python sebae) and the Ball python (Python regius) (Segniagbeto et al. 2011). Unlike pangolins, commercial international trade in python species from West Africa is largely permitted, given appropriate CITES paperwork is in place. In fact, the Ball python is the most traded CITES listed (Appendix 2) live animal legally exported from Africa (CITES Trade Database 2019) with most specimens intended for onward sale as exotic pets (Auliya and Schmitz 2010; CITES Trade Database 2019). From a domestic trade perspective, the Northern African rock python is used extensively for meat, leather and use in traditional medicine (e.g. Eniang et al. 2008; Fuashi et al. 2019). The use of pythons as traditional medicine has a number of animal welfare implications. Reptiles are recognised in the limited relevant research as being capable of a range of intellectual abilities and states including anxiety, distress, excitement, fear, frustration and pain (Lambert et al. 2019), suggesting that they have the capacity to experience suffering during capture, restraint, transport and subsequent captivity (Baker et al. 2013).

From a conservation perspective, the Northern African rock python has not been evaluated by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, this species is also not thought to be as widespread as they once were (Areste and Cebrian 2003). Similarly, although the Ball python is currently considered as Least Concern, information regarding the status and impact of commercial trade on wild populations is also lacking (Auliya and Schmitz 2010). Although the majority of live Ball pythons are reported as animals originating from “ranching” operations, there are concerns that current hunting practices to maintain ranch stock target the most vulnerable biological stages (specifically gravid females and neonates) (Auliya and Schmitz 2010; D’Cruze et al. 2020). Additionally, there are concerns that methods used to source wild Ball pythons, such as the digging and destruction of burrows and the improper release of ranched Ball pythons, may also be contributing to an overall reduction in wild populations of this species (Auliya and Schmitz 2010; D’Cruze et al. 2020) and genetic pollution (Auliya et al. 2020). In light of these other conservation pressures, the large-scale sale of pythons as traditional medicine is also of potential conservation concern.

Our study confirms that a proportion of the vendors who sell wildlife derivatives at the “Marché des Fétiches” in Togo also sell plants as traditional medicine (Suppl. material 2). This is perhaps unsurprising given that other studies in other locations (e.g. South Africa; Williams 2007) have found that the majority of traditional medicines are of botanical origin. In fact, while there is a rich history of research focused on the use of traditional medicinal plants for more than 200 years, research focused on wildlife as traditional medicine in Africa arguably only commenced in the 1980s (Williams and Whiting 2016). However, it appears that studies, focused on the potential use of plants as a humane and sustainable alternative to the use of threatened wildlife species, are largely lacking. Moorhouse et al. (2020) found that plant-based alternatives are likely to be a viable and preferred option for consumers of wildlife as traditional Asian medicine in China, given that they are listed within existing pharmacopoeia and provided by practitioners that do not challenge the existing Chinese belief system. Although the use of botanical-based traditional medicine does not involve animal welfare concerns, it is important to note that careful steps should be taken to ensure that conservation concerns are not transferred to target plant species in West Africa.

Establishing the impact of traditional medicine on wildlife is notoriously difficult (Williams and Whiting 2016). In particular, caution is always required in interpreting data derived from interviewees when trade involves some element of illegality and/or unsustainability (e.g. Newton et al. 2008; D’Cruze et al. 2018). For example, given the potentially sensitive nature of the information asked for in our surveys, interviewees might have been reluctant to be honest about the magnitude of their activities or may have unintentionally underestimated sales due to poor memory recall. Conversely, interviewees may have exaggerated the extent of their trade activities, knowingly or unknowingly. As such, there is a risk that the data underestimate or overestimate the impact on wildlife in Togo. With regards to the impact of wildlife trade activity on wild animal populations, it should be noted that there are a number of other causative factors (including those that are legal, political, epidemiological and environmental in nature) that can also affect the availability of a particular species at a given point in time. However, our aim was not to assess the extent of impact, rather we sought to identify those species that might potentially be at risk, to better understand what they might be used for (by consumers) and to gain preliminary insights into the prescription and sale of plant-based alternatives (by vendors).

A full inventory of the wild animal species being sold at the “Marché des Fétiches” was beyond the scope of this study. Similarly, although vendors provided samples upon request, it was not possible to identify any of the local plant species from the dried specimens available. As such, we acknowledge that our use of local names to infer the species sold by vendors does not provide a complete taxonomic account. Furthermore, our use of local names likely means that, in some cases, vendors may be referring to only one particular species that is not threatened by extinction or vice versa. However, taxonomic inventories, based on direct observation, also have their limitations when considering the impact of traditional medicine on wildlife. For example, many traders sell individual bones or pieces of skin, making it impossible to determine how many individual animals are being traded in a particular market (Williams and Whiting 2016). In addition, traders are sometimes willing to use animals recovered dead from the wild rather than those killed specifically for use as traditional medicine (Williams and Whiting 2016). Despite the limitations of an interview-based approach, involving a relatively small number of vendors, we believe that our findings represent valuable information that can be used to help provide information for future efforts to protect wildlife in Togo.

The use of wild animals as traditional medicine involves multiple overlapping anthropological, ecological and behavioural aspects with a complexity that should not be underestimated (Williams and Whiting 2016). Although it is important to acknowledge an individual’s reliance (World Health Organization 2002) or preference for traditional medicine (Whiting et al. 2011), the potential negative impacts of species exploitation on their conservation and welfare (Lambert et al. 2019) should also not be ignored, as ultimately the health and welfare of wildlife and people are inextricably linked and dependent on each other (Slorach 2013; OIE 2019). In particular, trade in live wild animals and their derivatives at markets that lack proper biosecurity have been specifically cited as a transmission mechanism of growing concern in recent decades (Can et al. 2019).

In addition to increased clarity regarding the domestic legislation and associated penalties (e.g. D’Cruze et al. 2020), increased research effort, focusing on the impacts of traditional medicine on both individual and wild animal populations, is required. We recommend that those wild animals already considered threatened by extinction (31 inferred species, including pangolin) and those with populations already thought to be in decline (65 inferred species) should be made a priority. However, we would also like to highlight that non-threatened wild animals, stated to have increased in rarity (70 inferred species), specifically those that are also considered to be highly profitable (such as python), should also not be overlooked in this regard.

During our survey, vendors stated that the majority of derivatives were used for spiritual use rather than medical purposes, with the most frequently cited benefit of using animals being to acquire “protection” (Fig. 1b). Furthermore detailed discussion with a larger sample size of vendors and an in-depth thematic analysis of content could be carried out to substantiate this finding and to explore potential nuances in relation to, for example, different product types and pricing. In addition, although not a focus of our research, future studies should look to collect data on how these derivatives are prepared and utilised. Clearly, additional research, focused on the socio-economic and societal pressures responsible for this type of consumer demand (including studies focused on consumer attitude and behaviour), is required and could be used to provide information for future initiatives aimed at minimising any negative impacts on people and wildlife. Given that a number of plant-based alternatives exist within the traditional medicine culture in West Africa, we also recommend additional research that could relieve pressure from over-exploited wildlife. For example, molecular studies could aid future taxonomic identification of plant species being sold as traditional medicine and weight-based price comparisons of plant-based alternatives with wildlife derivatives, could prove particularly useful in this regard. However, although such initiatives would not incur animal welfare costs, they would need to carefully ensure that conservation costs were not unintentionally transferred to these plant species. More research focused on the taxonomy, conservation status and uses of the plant-based products being sold in Togo is recommended in this regard.