RELMA sees four good reasons for documenting this kind of information on the edible wild plants of east and southern Africa in an easily accessible format:

• As a general principal, we should attempt to record all traditional knowledge and wisdom that is at risk of dying out. There are still many people, often the old people,who know how to utilize the resources of the "wild," but this is knowledge that nowadays is seldom passed on to the younger generation;
• During periods of crop failure and famine, wild foods are often available pro- vided people know where to look for them, recognize them and can cook them appropriately;
• Eating habits are changing very rapidly, both in the South and the North. Unfortunately, however, not all these changes are nutritionally sound. Some- times the modern staple foods relied upon in Africa are monotonous and lack nutrients essential for a balanced diet. The addition of some wild plant foods to such poor staple-based diets can mean the difference between a healthy child and one whose future may be blighted by the consequences of malnutrition;
• Probably the most important edible plant species in the world have already been identified, domesticated, propagated, developed and put to economic use. Modern gene-modification techniques have the potential for developing new plants in the laboratory, but I am convinced that there will always be uses for existing but not-so-well-known ìnewî plants in food production. The promotion of "functional foods," those that are "extra healthy", or half way to being medicines, is growing rapidly. It is more than likely that among all the edible wild plants of eastern Africa there are substances with the potential for being developed into products that could play an important economic role in the region.