Cropwatch 7

Threatened & Vulnerable Aromatic Species:

A List of Essential Oils Recommended by Cropwatch Not to Be Used in Cosmetics/Perfumery.

Copyright © Tony Burfield Oct 2004 & Jan/Feb 2005.

Preamble.

Commodities from aromatic species that are ecologically at-risk are used in the aroma industry (: perfumery/cosmetics, flavourings, aromatherapy and incense products). Burfield (2003) has previously tentatively identified these items for the perfume industry and Burfield & Wildwood (2004) have identified them for the aromatherapy profession. In this tabular & more detailed format, this list of aromatic commodities used in perfumes & cosmetics from threatened and at-risk species, first drawn up by the author in October 2004, does not reflect disruption in the supply of aromatic raw materials caused by extremes of weather in Florida and the Caribbean during 2004, or yet by the Tsunami disaster, the result of the fourth largest earthquake this century which took place off the coast of N. Sumatra in the Indian Ocean region on 26^th December 2004. This event regrettably took a terrible toll on human life and has caused immense disruption & suffering. The disaster outfalls have also subsequently affected the supply and/or price of a range of raw materials such as Patchouli, Nutmeg, Cananga & Cinnamon oils, amongst others (Patchouli plants Pogostemon cablin being grown in several affected islands such as Melaboh and Loksuemawe in Aceh, and Nias Island).

At the time of writing (Jan 2005) oil traders report that Sandalwood oil Indonesian & East Indian is pretty well unobtainable - even previously available small parcels of oil (sometimes adulterated with polyethylene glycol 600, or East Indian and/or Australian Sandalwood oil), which sold for the unprecedented price of $1,000/Kg. Small lots of Sandalwood oil from Sri Lanka, Vanuatu & other Pacific Islands, New Caledonia & even China, have  become increasingly rare. Rosewood oil supplies are described by oil traders (Dec 2004) as ‘critical’. The ability of the relevant authorities in these producing areas to control smuggling of Sandalwood and other threatened species is therefore expected by Cropwatch to be increasingly tested (see smuggling section below). The planting of tracking chips by the US Forestry Service into ginseng plants (Fallik 2003), and by the State of Kerala’s Forestry Dept. into Sandalwood trees, may present a useful technological advance in defeating the wholesale smuggling of plants [American Ginseng: Panex quinquefolium is a critically threatened medicinal plant according to Plant Savers (Zarella 2004); the number of Sandalwood trees in Kerala's Marayur Forest has dropped from 62,000 to 55,000].

References:

Burfield T. (2003) “Unethical Use of Rare & Threatened Plants and Animal

Products in the Aroma Industry.” Endangered Species Update May/June 2003 Vol 20(3), 97-106.

Burfield T. & Wildwood C. (2005) “Cropwatch 5” www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~nodice/ new/magazine/cropwatch5/cropwatch5.htm  

Microchip Protection For Sandalwood - 26/11/2004 see:  http://www.nzforestry.co.nz/nzf_archive.asp?viewarchive=yes&articleid=2275

Zarella C. (2004) “Watching the Wildcrafters” E Magazine 01.03.2004.

The Myths around the “Sustainable Production” of Essential Oils.

The ideal of solving ecological sustainability issues for commodities “through the eye of the market” has become a popular concept. Making indigenous forest peoples the custodians of biodiversity; rewarding them appropriately via Fair Trade schemes; promoting initiatives between NGO’s and farmers to grow ‘at-risk’ species commercially are commonly (and perhaps over- simplistically) reeled off by oil sellers as a panacea to the situation. Further, the mention of obscure geographic origins for sourcing these “sustainably produced” aromatic commodities further tends to confuse the true picture. The reality of continuing to trade in at-risk species is, however, much more complex than traders would often have customers believe, and Margolis, in an article that seems to me almost to have a touch of black humour about it, provides some examples of misguided commercial enterprise in promoting commodities from Amazonian Forest Schemes (Margolis 2004). The subject is touched on further under the “Some Misunderstood Terms” and “Quotes” section below.

Reference

Margolis M. (2004) “Jungle Economics; Environmentalists thought they could save the Rain Forest and make money at the same time. They were wrong.” Newsweek Internat. 16.02.2004.

A List of Essential Oils Recommended by Cropwatch Not to Be Used in Perfumery

KEY

Please note: The  lists in this article are not exhaustive, and do not generally include low risk/near threatened species such as Cupressus sempervirens (Cedarleaf oil) and Callitris columellaris (Australian Cypress pine oil).

Chakrabarty et al. (1994) had earlier described the agarwood trade in India, pinpointing some 200 distilleries in Hojai, Nilbagan and Islamnagar in the Naogoan district of Assam, and describing the distillation process in detail. The authors describe difficulties in establishing the legal licensed basis (if any) for many of the distilleries in the above locations, and similarly for the agarwood extraction businesses in Manipur, and also the  problems in estimating the extent of illegally acquired agarwood from India and Bhutan - in addition to that smuggled via Myanmur. The main destination for agarwood, chips and dust appeared to be the United Arab Emirates (especially Dubei), Saudi Arabia, UK and Bahrain.

Harris T. (undated), a US-based businesswoman selling aromatic raw materials including Aquilaria qualities, reflects on knowledge of the agarwood situation in Laos, gained via a personal 3-week visit (see http://www.enfleurage.com/ac-agarwood-2.html). Harris argues against a total ban on agarwood oil trading which she maintains is not necessary; the argument seems to be somewhat tenuously reasoned on the hedonistic pleasure that the products give at this present moment in time, although elsewhere in the article Harris refers to very large numbers of plantation trees which exist in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, thereby implying a continued harvest (presumably of A. crassna at least). This was not the conclusion of the Trade & Legislation workshop group at First International Agarwood Conference, Viet Nam, November 2003, which concluded “plantations are not the stand-alone answer to long-term supply of the global Agarwood trade.”

A second argument against maintaining the unfettered free trading in this valuable commodity, as even TRP have conceded on their website, is the fact that the establishment of agarwood plantations will not necessarily reduce the demand for agarwood – they may well increase it. Meanwhile it is generally agreed that the natural occurrence of Aquilaria spp. in the wild across India, Indonesia etc. generally continues to decline, in spite of the establishment of plantations in various widely-spread locations. A scenario where the survival prospects for Aquilaria species are ultimately dependent on privately owned plantations is not a prospect that every ecologically-minded person would relish, and the essential oil trade itself has many disaster stories connected with failed commercial plantations, across a number of oil-bearing species. It is also apparent that although Harris is preoccupied with the survival of Aquilaria species per se, perhaps in order to continue to be able to market valuable commodities from the genus, the negative effects for biodiversity of slash and burn, creeping agricultural production in forest areas plus agarwood monoculture in these areas, are not clearly spelled out in her article. Thus, whilst arguments surrounding issues solely concerning Aquilaria species sustainability might be put forward, true ecological forest sustainability with its existing biodiversity (i.e. holistic forest management) probably cannot. So, my conclusion is that the somewhat profane use of agarwood oil in high-class perfumery – which is the principal issue with which we are concerned here - seems to serve no good purpose, apart from any attached merchandising gain from its advertised mention as a novelty ingredient, and could be positively harmful to the ecological status of Aquilaria spp. by adding to the demand for the commodity.

Harris in her article further describes a highly energy-intensive preparative distillation process for agarwood oil, which is said to occur over 7 days (in contrast to the 30-36 hour Assam process as described by Chakrabarty et al. 1994), but fails to mention any relevant carbon neutral issues. Harris also argues to the effect that botanical classification of agarwood species is not currently practical at the point of trade, since (if I understand this correctly), Harris maintains that traded items like oil and chipped wood are impossible to back-classify. This may be a perfectly valid position in countries with an absence, or a refusal to implement, batch-tracking practices. On the face of it, it would not easily be solved in a perfect world even by employing the appropriate advanced analytical botanical & chemical education & training either. However The Plant Bulletin of the Agri-Food & Vetinary Authority of Singapore (Jan. 2004) describes the documentation procedures for the export, import and re-export of agarwood species which were not classified in Appendix II of CITES at the time (such as block, chips powder or oil of Aquilaria filaria), suggesting that this might not be such a universal problem as Harris suggests.  One can’t help feeling that this type of argument cited above reflects a tendency amongst agarwood ‘cultists’ to resist all methods of scientific investigation & classification - these would be useful tools to demystify areas such as agarwood quality assessment procedures, which are connected to ethnically - & culturally - based rituals.

Finally the article also rails against alleged shortcomings in the evidence leading to IUCN and CITES classifications for Aquilaria spp. – again familiar arguments used in incense-product trading circles to justify continued agarwood trading. Nevertheless it has to be remembered that the Republic of Indonesia itself (which claims to be the largest agarwood producer) was the proposer for the inclusion of all agarwood producing species of Aquilaria & Gryrinops which were currently not in the Appendices of CITES, at the Thirteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties on 3-14 October 2004 in Bangkok, Thailand. Further Harris’s arguments, from the somewhat rosy-tinted perspective of an agarwood commodity seller, presents a gently indulgent and sanitised picture of agarwood trading – with no mention of gangland, smuggling/illegal trading or any ugly exploitation of indigenous gatherers by exogenous collectors, which is widely reported elsewhere – for example in Central and East Kalimantan, Sumatra, Papua New Guinea etc. Further, as Momberg et al. (2000) infer, threats from outsiders can affect traditional ways of more sustainable gaharu gathering turning them towards more intense & destructive practices.

In spite of these deep misgivings, I recommend readers make their own minds up by reading the article by Trygve Harris at the above mentioned URL, which I feel makes an important contribution to understanding the attitudes and knowledge surrounding agarwood commodity trading.     

references:

Chakrabarty K., Kumar A. & Menon V (1994) Trade in Agarwood WWF-India/TRAFFIC India, New Delhi

Momberg F. et al. “Exploitation of Gaharu, and Forest Conservation Efforts in the Kayan Mentarang National Park, East Kalimantan, Indonesia” in People, Plants & Justice – The Politics of Nature Conservation ed. Charles Zerner Columbia University Press, NY 2000.

Phillips D. (2005) – business advisor to TRP – private communication Jan. 2005.

Wollenberg EK (2001) "Incentives for collecting gaharu in East Kaliantan" Economic Botany 55, 444-456.

Yamada, I (1995) "Aloeswood Forest & the Maritime World" Southeast Asian Studies 33(3), 181-187. 

Notes (data complied from various sources Including):

Burkhill IH (1966) A dictionary of economic products of the Malay Peninsula Vol: 2 Ministry of Agriculture & Cooperatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Aquilaria beccariana van Tieghem is:
syn. Aquilaria cumingiana (Decne) Ridley var. parviflora Airy Shaw
syn. Acquilaria grandifolia Domke
syn. Gyrinopsis grandifolia Quis (– also found in Borneo, Malaysia, Sumatra).

Aquilaria crassna Pierre ex H. Lecomte is:
syn Aquilaria agallocha auct., non-Roxb (1832)
(Cambodia, S. Vietnam and Thailand; becoming very rare).

Aquilaria hirta Ridley
syn. Aquilaria moszkowskii Gilg. (– found in parts of Malaysia, Singapore, E. part of Sumatra)

Aquilaria malaccensis Lamk (1783) is:
syn. Aquilaria agollacha Roxb. (1832)
syn. Agallochum malaccense (Lamk) Kuntze (1891)
syn Aquilariella malaccensis (Lamk) v. Tieghem (1893).

A. malaccensis reportedly found in India (especially NE India), Burma, parts of Malaysia, Sumatra Bangka, Borneo, the Phillipines, Japan, Thailand, some parts of Cambodia and Vietnam, and other parts of the very Far East. A. agallocha found in the forests of S.E. Asia including within India: Assam (Nowgong-cachar), Nagaland (Naga), Meghalaya (Khasi, Karo Hills), Bangladesh, W. Bengal (Darjeeling), the hills of Manipur and Tripur, and elsewhere: Bhutan, Burma, Myanmar, Western China, Japan, Vietnam, Sumatra, Phillipines (Luzon), Cambodia, Borneo & Iran. Some regard A. agollocha is a truly distinct species – see TRAFFIC REPORT by Broad S (1995) “Agarwood Harvesting in Vietnam.” TRAFFIC Bulletin- Wildlife Trade Monitoring Unit 1995 15(2), 96 Traffic International.

Aquilaria microcarpa Baillon - occurs in some parts of Malaysia, Sumatra, Belitung, Bangka and Borneo.

Aquilaria sinensis Sprengel is syn. A. grandiflora Benth. : Southern China

The Santalum genus is represented by some 25 semi-parasitic species, all possessing fragrant woods, occurring throughout SE Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Sandalwood oil East Indian has traditionally occupied an important place in perfumery because of its sensual, radiant and long-lasting woody odour, good fixative properties and its ability to combine with other aromatic raw materials such as rose, jasmin, patchouli, orris, bergamot & lavender etc. to give pleasing effects. There is now pressure on all sandalwood species resulting from the over-exploitation of Santalum album in India and Indonesia, and whilst global demand is in excess of 200 tons/annum, the market has struggled to supply 50 tons in 2004 (Cropwatch data).

References to table 3:

CIMAP (1997): Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP 1997).  From Indian Medicinal Plants Facing Genetic Erosion CIMAP Lucknow 1977.

CITES: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).  Official documents: Appendices I, II and III. "http://www.cites.org/eng/append/latest_appendices.shtml 

Cropwatch (2003): see www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~nodice/

Cropwatch (2004): unpublished information.

TB (2003): see www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~nodice/new/magazine/products/products.htm

IUCN listings: see www.redlist.org

See other information on threatened species in the aroma & herb

trades on: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~nodice/ and http://chrissie-wildwood.com/  

Footnotes to tables.

^1. Production of agarwood oil in India is 800-1000Kg per annum: Shiva MP, Lehri A, Shiva A. (2002) Aromatic & Medicinal Plants pub. Intl. Book Distrib 2002, Dehra Dun, India.

^2. Soehartong T. & Newton A.C. (2002) “The Gharu Trade in Indonesia: Is it Sustainable?” Economic Botany 56(3) pp271-284 have suggested that the current Indonesian trade in gaharu is not sustainable as more non-local gatherers become involved in collection, against a background of declining traded mass from regions such as Kalimantan etc.

³ In India, the extraction of this species is either banned or regulated depending on the state under the Indian Forest Act and Administration Order of State Forest Department. Export of wood banned under item 7 of para 158 of prohibited items but it still occurs (and is officially recorded!).

⁴ Hoegler N. (2000). “Plight of buchu underscores the need for international herb development.” Herbalgram 50,16.

⁵ See Burfield (2005) “A short note on the Ecological Status of Cedarwood Atlas: Cedrus atlantica (Endl.) Carr.” at www.users.globalnet.co.uk/ ~nodice/new/magazine/. A further paper on the distillation of Cedrus atlantica f. glauca in mid- & S. France, is in preparation.

^5a Some small & micro-scale production of essential oil from C. atlantica f. glauca in mid and S. France from either chipped wood, bark or leaves (needles), according to producing site. Both winter bark-stripping and leaf distillation claimed ‘not to threaten trees’ but no authoritative and impartial impact assessment exists (Cropwatch 2005).

⁶ FAO (1986): “endangered…because of changing land use problems, the discontinuous distribution of the species, wildfire hampering establishment of regeneration, browsing pressure from buffalo and elephants, logging and a gradual switch from using native species in reforestation programs to fast growing exotics.”  FAO (1986) Databook on endangered tree and shrub species and provenances. Forest Resources Division, Forestry Dept., Forestry Paper 77.

^7. Maia B. et al. (2000) “Essential Oils of Toona and Cedrela Species (Meliaceae): Taxonomic and Ecological Implications” J. Braz. Chem. Soc. 11, 6 Nov./Dec. 2000.

⁸ Zhu L., Ding D. & Lawrence B.M. (1994) “The Cinnamomum species in China: Resources for the present and future” Perf & Flav. 19, July/Aug 1994, 17-22.

⁹ Cropwatch (2004): production of Manila Elemi has previously reached 350 tons/year – information complied from various sources.

¹⁰ 100 tons of stem bark per year are destructively harvested by indiscriminate collectors: Rasoanaivo P. (1997) “Ravensara aromatica: A Threatened Aromatic Species of Madagascar” Med. Plant Conserv. 4, (Nov 1997) p9. 

¹¹ Chauhan N.S. (1988) “Endangered Ayurvedic pharmacopoeial plant resources of Himal Pradesh. In: Indigenous Medicinal Plants including Microbes & Fungi ed: P. Kaushik. Pub: Today & Tomorrow’s Printers, New Delhi p199-205. 

¹² Degradation of J. thruifera forest attributed to slow growth and heavy use of forest habitat. Ref: Ciesla W.M. (2002) “Juniper Forests – A Special Challenge for Sustainable Forestry” Forests, Trees and Livelihoods 12, 195-207. J. thruifera tar is mainly used in medicinal & vetinary applications; rarely  redistilled to produce essential oil useful for leathery notes in perfumery.

¹³ Farjon, Aljos. et al. 1998. Data collection forms for conifer species completed by the SSC Conifer Specialist Group between 1996 and 1998.

¹⁴ Approx 1000 tons/annum lichen processed for aroma & incense industry in Nepal (Cropwatch: unpublished information).

¹⁵ Holiday (1989) Australian Trees Hamlyn, Australia.

¹⁶ Tanzania has 44 million ha of forest including ebony & East African sandalwood trees, but is loosing it at the rate of 400,000 ha per annum: Xinhua News Agency (2004): “Tanzania bans logging in overseen areas.” 23.09.2004. Imported Osyris tenuifolia logs distilled and CO₂ extracted in India by Maplewood Trading, Mumbai. 

¹⁷ IUCN Red Listing of Santalum album based on data from the Asia Regional Workshop (1997) Conservation and Sustainable Management of Trees project workshop held in Hanoi, Vietnam, August, 1997.

¹⁸ FAO (1984) Report of the Fifth Session of the FAO Panel of Experts on Forest Gene Resources Information No 14:32-49.

^{18a “}India accounts for 99% of sandal oil production in the world …The area of Sandal under cultivation is 9000 km² ….The rate of production of scented heartwood in natural populations is 450-600 g/hectare/year” Swaminathan M.S. (undated) in Recent advances in the Research & Management of Sandal Associated Publishing Company, New Delhi, India.

¹⁹ Green C. (1995): through http://www.unep-wcmc.org/trees/trade/san_alb.htm

²⁰ See Smuggling section below: Australia

²¹ Mabberley (2^nd. rev. edn 1998) The Plant Book Cambridge Univ. Press (1998). 

²² Australian sandalwood extract is reportedly used by fragrance houses Christian Dior, Calvin Klein and Yves Saint Laurent. (Anon 2003) “Winning exporters”. Soap Perfumery & Cosmetics Jan 2003. After discovering Indian sandalwood was unsustainable and unethical, Aveda have apparently switched to Australian sandalwood qualities from the aboriginal community, Kutabubba [Hancock L. (2005)The Guardian Weekend, Jan 8 2005, p43]. 

²³ Management plans by private concerns have existed to produce 1 ton of sandalwood oil crude per year from Vanuatu until 2007 (as a comparison India produced 45 tons of sandalwood in 1999 ref: Anon. (1999) “Tree Farming: More on Sandal Cultivation: Economics of Sandal Plantations.” Agric. & Industry Survey, March/April pp30-32).

²⁴ See SPRIG Document (Jan 2002): “A strategy for Conserving, Managing & Better Utilising the Genetic Resources of Santalum austrocaledonicum (sandalwood in Vanuatu)”. 

²⁵ For background on S. yasi & S. austrocaldonicum in the Pacific see PAR article by Thompson L. (2004) “Santalum austrocaledonicum and S. yasi (sandalwood)” at http://www.traditionaltree.org. A further PAR article outling profiles on Santalum ellipticum, S. freycinetianum, S. haleakalae, S. paniculatum (Hawaiian Sandalwood) is in preparation by PAR (Thompson 2005: personal communication).

²⁶ An initiative for Nardostachys spp. cultivation between an NGO & Nepalese farmers is currently in place, but carries no environmental impact studies (Cropwatch: unpublished information). This initiative has brought about pharmaceutical interest (certain Nardostachys spp. constituents have a sedative effect on the CNS) and may not ultimately benefit the oil market. Previously the commercial harvesting of medicinal aromatic plants and the shortcomings of Nepal’s forest legislation with respect to detrimental effects on farmers had been discussed Olsen C.S. & Helles F. (1997) “Making the Poorest Poorer: Policies, Laws and Trade in Medicinal Plants in Nepal” J. of World Forest Resources Management 8, 137-158; Malla YB “Sustainable Use of Communal Forests in Nepal J. of World Forest Resources Management 8, 51-74.

²⁷ Plant extraction from wild is banned in Uttah Pradesh; see  http://www.cites.org/eng/cttee/PC/10/PC10-Inf2.pdf  Traditionally most Nepalese Nardostchys herb production has been routed to India;  availability of herb to endemic peoples for ethno-botanical (medicinal) use has been severely diminishing. It may be that in spite of the new planting initiatives for farmers, this situation will continue /www.cites.org/eng/cttee/PC/10/PC10-Inf2.pdf

²⁸ Amatya G. & Sthapit V.M. (1994) “A note on Nardostachys jatamansi” J. Herbs, Spices & Med Plants 2(2) 39-47.

^29. Rotational harvesting practice by the FUGs of Humla in the community managed forest has encouraged the sustainable management of Jatamansi to some extent, see: http://www.ansab.org/News_Fol/plantprofile.htm.

The Ethical Consumer Association are asking consumers to boycott oils and herbs from endangered, threatened and at-risk species (and products containing extracts from such sources). See http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/boycotts/boycottnews.htm

Footnotes to tables – (cont’d).

³⁰ Peters C. et al. (2003) ^“The Life and Times of Bursera glabrifolia (H.B.K.) Engl. in Mexico: A Parable for Ethnobotany” Econ Botany 57(4) 432-441

³¹ See

http://www.nerium.net/plantaeuropa/Download/Workshops/Workshop3/RedondoSaavedra_w3.pdf

³² Shanley P. & Rosa N.A. (2004) “Erroding knowledge: an ethnobotanical inventory in East Amazonia’s Logging Frontier.” Economic Botany 58(2), 135-160.

³³ Plowden (2003) studied production ecology from 3 copaiba types in the E. Brazilian Amazon: Plowden C. (2003) “Production Ecology of Copaiba (Copaifera spp.) Oleoresin in the E. Brazilian Amazon” Econ Botan 57(4) pp 491-501.

³⁴ Lange (1988) Europe’s Medicinal and Aromatic Plants: their use, trade and conservation. Traffic Europe 1998.

Notes on Some Misused Ecological Terms: Some Provocative Counter-Information!

Much of the information available to essential oil users originates from the oil traders themselves (e.g. the monthly Newsletter from Essentially Oils Ltd., Chipping Norton, Ox., UK; or the Monthly Trading Reports from George Uhe Co,. Inc. at http://www.uhe.com/mktreportmain.htm). Some oil traders (perhaps unwittingly) may have mislead their customers by mis- or re-interpreting common ecological terms such as “sustainable production”, the effects of which (intentionally or non-intentionally) invariably suit their own commercial ends. Here is the briefest re-look at some of these concepts: 

Sustainability: The capability of natural systems to maintain themselves whilst being used (i.e. equals holistic resource management).

Sustainable harvest: (according to Hall & Bawa 1993): “the level of harvest that does not impair the ability of the harvest population to replace itself.” This is the commonest misconception put about by oil traders: the definition does not take any account of ecological impact of harvesting. For example Rooibos tea from Aspalanthus linearis is widely said to be “sustainably harvested” in S. Africa [e.g. quoted by Wickens (2000)]. However the species Agathosma cephalodes E. May. ex Sond., formerly endemic in the Western Cape, is reportedly affected by the Rooibos tea industry, and may already by extinct according to Golding (2002).

 “The management of a forest for a single product will affect the forest’s ability to provide other services or products, so trade-offs have to be made” Higman et al. (1999) The Sustainable Forestry Handbook Earthscan Publicns.

Sustainable Yield Forestry: “…basically describes a myth. There are next to no examples of industrial sustainable tropical timber operations in the world, even when using a limited economic definition of yield – i.e., maintaining the volumes of timber available in successive harvests” (WRM, 1990).

A study commissioned by the International Tropical Timber Association (ITTO), found that “the amount of sustainable tropical timber harvesting is, on a world scale, negligible”.

The above two references would appear to challenge the possibility of sustainable production of essential oils from plant species with very long maturity times e.g. Sandalwood East Indian Santalum album (80 years) or Cedarwood Atlas Cedrus atlantica (120 years).

Deforestation: 21 acres of forest are cleared per minute (= 30,200 acres per day) across the globe. Logging machines like the 39-ton Timberking (a cutting machine: TB) can clear-cut 1 hectare of forest per day ref: Ecologist June 2003 p16. Countries like Madagascar have lost 95% of their forest cover compared with the situation 100 years previously. Every year, fires consume up to half of Malagasy's vast grasslands and thousands of square kilometres of its rainforests and secondary brush (slash and burn agriculture): Kull (2002). Essential oil crops have been monocultured on land that was previously virgin forest in Madagascar (Cropwatch: unpublished data).

Commercial plantations producing aromatic commodities such as agharu do not halt the rate of disappearance of agharu-bearing trees from those areas in which they occur. Selective extractive of trees (e.g. Aniba spp. for rosewood oil production) is often regarded as over-expensive & impractical by logging companies, compared with clear cutting.

NGO’s themselves have not escaped criticism. For example the ITTO has been accused of vested interest and national government bias (Higman et al. 1999).

Organic Status Aromatic Materials. Commercial organisations, such as EcoCert and the Soil Association, with little experience of the essential oil trade, employ inspection & batch tracking systems (but no actual chemical analysis of commodities for pesticides etc.) to certify aromatic materials for their organic status. Many incongruities arise from this situation:

1. It is difficult to understand how some steam distilled essential oils can be certified as “organic” when produced by diesel fuel as energy source, which has sometimes been hauled thousands of kilometres in order to produce them (Kobus, 2004).

2. It is also difficult to understand how threatened species illegally gathered from the wild can be certified as organic [see Wildwood (2004)].

3. Solvent extracted absolutes and concretes are not certified as organic by certain organisations, on the basis that they may contain miniscule amounts of solvent residues. Since they have been used in perfumery for up to 140 years, toxicological testing data exists for many of these materials. CO₂ extracts of many (floral) absolutes and concretes, generally of unknown toxicity, are allowed to be classified by certain certifying organisations as “organic”.

4. Since open records of the activities of these organisations are not available for public inspection, and no-one has solved the “who inspects the inspectors” conundrum, the operation remains a little more than a marketing exercise, in Cropwatch’s opinion.

Plantations. Plantations are included in #2 Destructive Projects: (a list which also points the finger at dams, ranching, mining & industrial projects, commercial logging, the Tropical Forests Action Plan and the UN Biodiversity program). See The World Rainforest Movement’s Emergency Call to Action for the Forests and Their Peoples (petition with 3 million signatures delivered to the UN in 1989). The adverse effects of monoculture and effects of fertiliser chemicals, pesticides etc. on the eco-system need no further introduction; mixed species accession schemes for non-timber products on cleared land is too often not considered as an option.  

Rising CO₂ levels – Global Warming. Unexpectedly large rises in CO₂ levels for the last two years (2.08 and 2.54 ppm respectively) were recorded at Mauna Loa Observatory, which is 12,000ft up on a mountain in Hawaii (Brown 2004), fuelling increasing worries that time is short to curb global carbon emissions to prevent runaway global warming. CO₂ is generated during the production of aromatic materials – for example by burning fuel to raise steam for the steam distillation of aromatic materials, and by the agricultural production techniques used to raise aromatic plants (e.g. by disturbing the forest floor). Many essential oil producing countries are not signatories to the Kyoto protocol (e.g. Australia, USA), and the essential oils trade has not taken on board the concept of carbon neutral methods of aromatic raw material production, although the opportunity for solar distillation exists in many tropical & even those more temperate countries. Solar distillation would, in addition to eliminating CO2 from the processing operation, conserve wood fuels in areas where wood is scarce and needed for food preparation. Further, several aromatic products employ excessively long distillation times (and therefore high potential fuel costs per kilo) for their production:

The slow, energy intensive process of distillation under reduced pressure is also employed to prepare essential oils (e.g. Sandalwood oil E.I. from Santalum album and Costus oil from Costus resinoid, Saussurea lappa etc). 

References:

Brown P. (2004) The Guardian Mon 11^th Oct 2004.

Golding J. (2002): Southern Africa Plant Red Data Lists ed. Janice Golding S.

  African Botanical Diversity Network Report N 14 2002 p104.

Hall P. & Bawa K.S. (1993) “Methods to assess the impact of extraction of

  non-timber forest products on plant populations.” Econ Bot 47, 234-247.

Higman S. et al. (1999) The Sustainable Forestry Handbook

  Publicns

Kobus A. (2004) – private communication.

Kull C. A. (2002) Journal of Cultural Geography 22.03.2002.

Wickens GE (2000) Ecophysiology of Economic Plants in Arid & Semi-Arid

  Lands Sringer Verlag NY.

Wildwood C. (2004) http://www.chrissie-wildwood.com/

Smuggling / Corruption and Threatened Species: some Press Reports

Australia: 1. AAP General News (Australia) 18.11.2002 “Queesland: Five fined for sandalwood harvesting”. According to the EPA, The Cairns Magistrate Court in Brisbane fined five individuals $300 each plus costs in the Cairns Magistrate Court today for the illegal harvesting and sale of sandalwood. No conviction was recorded.
2. AAP General News (Australia) 12.05.2000. “Queensland: Sandalwood claims would be dealt with if true”. Speaking in Perth, WA Premier Richard Court said that allegations of corruption – WA Government officials exporting Sandalwood to Taiwan dealers who had offered bribes or prostitutes - would be dealt with if the complaints could be verified., but that he could fine on evidence that officials took bribes, and the allegations related to a time before his government came to power.

Brazil: 1. “Brazil's unsustainable Amazon scheme” at http://www.bbc.co.uk/BBC NEWS/Americas  describes Sudam, the Brazilian Government’s disbanded Amazon Development Agency which was supposedly funding an environmentally sustainable projects across the Amazon with a budget of $0.5 bn a year. Much of this, prosecutors allege, was stolen. The farm was granted more than $3 million dollars, but prosecutors investigating where the money has disappeared to say hardly any coffee was planted and much of the money disappeared.

Thailand: 1. New Straits Times 6/28/2004 “Police hunt for Thai sandalwood collectors”.  Police hunt for 50 armed Thai sandalwood collectors, some armed with guns, in the Endau Rompin national park and nearby areas.

 India: 1. Jain, Pushp K. (1995) “Perspective: Nation's Rich Wildlife Is Endangered ” India Abroad  12.05.1995. Jain (1995) outlines the reasons why local people are antagonistic towards forestry officials, and describes inadequately equipped forestry staff who are paid on a daily basis. He lists a number of species under pressure: Sandalwood which has disappeared from S. India’s forests, teak in Bandipur in Karnata, rosewood and cinnamon in Periyar in Kerala, agarwood from NE India, and Himalayan Yew.

2. “India's Most Wanted Criminal Veerappan shot Dead” Pakistan Times Foreign Desk Report  http://pakistantimes.net/2004/10/20/top3.htm describes the police shooting of a bandit allegedly responsible, amongst other crimes, for the illegal felling and sale of thousands of sandalwood trees.

Indonesia: 1. Jakarta Post 30.09.2003 “Police seize 13.6 tons of Sandalwood”. T the East Nusa Tenggara Police (Kupang) seized at least 13.6 tons Kg of sandalwood allegedly smuggled from East Timor on the way to the sandalwood-distilling firm PT Tropicana Oil.
2. Jakarta Post 22.01.1999 “240,000 tons illegal logs, wood seized” Data at the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations indicated that 240,000 tons of illegally felled and transported tree included 10.14 tons of sandalwood.

Albert Schweitzer (1948): “The truly ethical man tears no leaf from a tree, plucks no flower and takes care to crush no insect.”

Low (2004) “Many problems in managing and protecting endangered species arise not from our ignorance of the species’ ecology, but from human conflicts of interest”

ref: Low, Bobbi S. (2004) Endangered Species Jan – Mar 2004 21(1) p14.

Rainforest Centre Educational Supplement (undated): The absence of any evidence that sustainable tropical timber extraction can be achieved is ignored by government who promote sustainable yield as a solution, without definition or examples.  Many factors stand in the way of true sustainability, including corruption, commercial pressures and methods of extraction which require heavy machinery which compact the soil.”

Rodman (1977): “I need only to stand in the middle of a clear cut forest, a strip mined hillside, a defoliated jungle, or a damned canyon to feel uneasy about assumptions that could yield the conclusion that no human action can make any difference to the welfare of anything but sentient animals. “

Glossary.

ITTO: International Timber Trade Organisation http://www.itto.or.jp

IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature & Natural Resources

Fair Trade Principles: Fair wages; Co-operative Workplaces; Consumer

education; Environmental Sustainability; Financial & Technical Support;

Respect for Cultural Identity; Public Accountability. See:

http://www.fairtradefederation.com/

UNEP: United Nations Environment Programme http://www.unep.ch

WCMC: World Conservation Monitoring Centre

http://www.wcmc.org.uk/aboutWDMC/-partners.html

WWF: Worldwide Fund for Nature http://www.panda.org

Copyright © Tony Burfield Oct 2004 & Jan/Feb 2005