Image:
As revealed by conservation organisations across the world, in Europe alone, more than 1,300 medicinal plants are used commercially, and about 90% are taken from the wild. Of course, wild-harvesting of herbs such as dandelion, burdock, plantain and nettle is unlikely to threaten these hardy and prolific species. The problem is associated with over-collection of more eco-sensitive and 'fashionable' herbs such as black cohosh, devil's claw and goldenseal. Undoubtedly, the burgeoning demand for botanical remedies is threatening to wipe out 10,000 of the world's 50,000 medicinal plant species.
And yet, according to a BBC news report, the British Herbal Medicine Association (BHMA) says the problem has been 'exaggerated'. As well as running counter to all current research, this irresponsible and unsubstantiated comment gives its members and the public a false impression and breeds complacency. Instead, they should be actively supporting increased cultivation of popular herbs that are being over-harvested from the wild.
What the BBC report fails to mention is that many of BHMA's members are herbal medicine companies making a goodly profit from wild harvested botanicals!
Click here to read the BBC news report
EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION
John Kerr, essential oil seller, aromatherapy 'educator' and editor of the Australian magazine, 'Aromatherapy Today' took umbrage with my article, 'Spotlight on the Trade in Wild Plants'. Having published the piece in his sychophantic trade journal in 2002, he was unable to contain his bias. Therein he dismisses the concerns and measured assessment of Ian Kealley, regional manager for the harvesting of sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) in Western Australia and an expert on the cultivation of the species, with the risible comment, 'That's just his personal opinion'.
Alas, the aromatherapy world is dominated by such 'educators' whose vested interests ensure that essential oil customers and aromatherapy students are kept misinformed. Contrary to the sales hype, wild-harvesting of Santalum spicatum is not assuredly sustainable for the simple reason that no sustainability studies have ever been conducted!
WATCH OUT FOR RENEWABLE BUZZWORDS
Since publication of my article, 'Spotlight on the Trade in Wild Plants', some essential oil suppliers selling aromatics from threatened wild plants have dropped the buzzwords 'sustainable', 'ethical' and 'wildcrafted' from promotional material. Instead, they've hijacked the term 'renewable'. So please don't be fooled by such phrases as 'from natural, renewable resources'.
Check to see if the same supplier is pedalling essential oils from felled wild trees such as amyris (Amyris balsamifera), cedar (Cedrus spp. including Cedrus atlantica), sandalwood (Santalum spp. from India, Indonesia, Australia and the South Pacific), rosewood (Aniba spp.), or any other oil captured from threatened wild plants such as calamus (Acorus calamus), spikenard (Nardostachys grandiflora, N. jatamansi and related species), wormwood and mugwort (Artemisia spp.)
On the other hand, the sudden re-wording of promotional material might well have been prompted by a warning from DEFRA, the UK government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which now demands business to be honest on green claims.
Click here to see the new government ruling on green claims
SOILED AND GREENWASHED
The organic inspection bodies Ecocert (France, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Japan, USA) and the UK Soil Association have also strayed into the fool's parsley patch. Both organisations provide organic certification for a number of wildcrafted products, including essential oils from endangered wild sources.
As Plantlife International conclude in their report 'Herbal Harvests with A Future' (January 2004), the Soil Association's Wildcrafting Standards are inadequate. Indeed, the report deems these standards to be '...only applicable in specific contexts, for instance where there is assured tenure of collection areas, and are often not fully suitable either for developing, or developed countries.'
This is an astounding conclusion and supports my own findings, which were made public in October 2002. So it's hardly surprising the Soil Association has made grave errors of judgement. For more on this issue, see 'Spotlight on the Trade in Wild Plants', and scroll down to the subheading 'Enter the Soil Association'.
Click here for Spotlight on the Trade in Wild Plants
MORE ON THE SOILED ASSOCIATION
The Natural Medicines Society resigned from the Soil Association's Health Products Standards Committee in May 2003, together with one or two other non-trade members. Undoubtedly, the resignations were due to despair, as concerns about the Soil Association's increasingly lax standards were being ignored or overruled.
All the remaining representatives of the Health Products Standards Committee, including those individuals who helped formulate the Soil Association's questionable Wildcrafting Standards policy, are trade members with vested interests. More telling, perhaps, is the fact that these same members contribute generously to the coffers of SACert, the non-charitable organic certification arm of the Soil Association. Indeed, SACert is a limited company charging substantial fees for its services.
And yet, the Soil Association maintains that trade members of the Health Product Standards Committee are there solely as helpful individuals, not as representatives of their respective companies.
Following is a compilation of excuses and denials written or uttered by certain essential oil suppliers in their reluctance to stop selling aromatics from unsustainable wild sources. Names are not included because many other essential oil and natural products suppliers continue to sell threatened and endangered botanicals. In any case, if all were named, the list would be discomfortingly long.
"Our rosewood and sandalwood oils are government certified."
Essential oil supplier UK
Remember, some governments allow seal clubbing, hunting with dogs, child labour, nuclear weapons development, the death penalty, clear-felling of ancient forests, and many other follies. Wise people protest against unethical legalities through non-violent direct action, peaceful disobedience and boycotts.
"I'm well aware of child labour in the incense factories. But then we're talking about India, not little England! You're not going to stop child labour by attacking the essential oil trade for selling sandalwood. You might as well try and stop the world!"
Essential oil seller, aromatherapy 'educator' and academic, UK.
The above outburst was his response to my concerns about ex-distillation sandalwood and associated exploitation of children in Asian incense factories.
"Energetically, Sandalwood, the musk deer, and other aromatic ingredients are choosing to leave the Earth plane because they know their time is up. Sandalwood especially for all its spiritual usages has blessed us and healed us and soon it will be time for something else to pick up that stick."
A bespoke Perfumer, USA
This is the ultimate New Age denial of human responsibility for the ecological crisis. In truth, the collective industrialised mindset is quite mad. Indeed, what other creature would systematically tear away at its life-support systems, as evidenced by the numerous manifestations of human-driven destruction of the tender blue planet that sustains all life? If we are to survive as a species, we need to understand that other life forms did not evolve for the sole purpose of human gratification.
“I’ve been a conservationist for thirty years, so I know all about the problems with sandalwood and rosewood. But blame the consumer, not the trade. So long as customers keep asking for these oils, then it’s my duty to supply.”
Essential oil supplier and aromatherapy ‘educator’, UK
“I will continue to sell rosewood oil because in doing so, I’m helping to support the Pygmies and their traditional way of life.”
Essential oil supplier, USA
Er, the aforementioned supplier needs to know that rosewood is from the Amazonian rainforest in South America, whereas the Pygmy tribes dwell in the Congo rainforest in Central Africa! Furthermore, distillation technology is unknown to the Pygmies, and indeed all other tribal societies.
"I have no special love of nature. I got into aromatherapy solely because it makes good business sense, and has proven to be the least corrupt of any industry I've ever worked in before."
Essential oil seller and aromatherapy 'educator', Australia.
"Our rosewood oil is distilled from the leaves of plantation grown trees."
Essential oil supplier, UK
In fact, no such sources of rosewood oil are available to the trade at the present time.
"All of our products are from sustainable resources to protect biological adversity."
Herb and essential oil seller, UK
Presumably the above supplier meant to write 'diversity'. As the company markets a number of botanicals from fragile wild sources, what a cracker of a Freudian slip!
“We’ve never claimed that our sandalwood oil is from a sustainable source.”
So says a US supplier of essential oils and other aromatics, several of which are from threatened wild sources in Asia. The same company boasts of its support for Greenpeace and various charities devoted to planting trees. There's nothing wrong with planting trees in the USA, but this will do nothing to curb ecological devastation in the other parts of the world due to over-exploitation of wild-harvested flora, exacerbated by rampant illegal logging.
"Our sandalwood oil is distilled only from trees blown down in storms."
So claim several essential oil suppliers in the UK and USA.
"Our Bois de Rose oil (Aniba Rosaeodora) is from South Africa."
Claims a UK supplier of "community traded", "eco-responsible" essential oils and raw materials for soapmakers.
Newcomers to aromatherapy need to be aware that the French name for roswood oil, Bois de Rose, is sometimes used as a ploy to divert attention. In this instance, attention is being diverted to the opposite side of the Earth. Don't be fooled. Aniba rosaeodora essential oil is captured from the trunk wood of wild trees torn down from the Amazonian rainforest in South America. There is NO source of Aniba rosaeodora oil in South Africa.
"We are sometimes asked why we sell sandalwood oil when it comes from a threatened species... Unfortunately there are certain 'aromatherapy journalists' who are more interested in a good story than in understanding the murky depths of what is actually happening..."
Essential Oil seller and member of the Aromatherapy Trade Council UK, writing in their Autumn 2005 Newsletter. This same supplier also trades in endangered rosewood and Atlas cedar.
The aforementioned newsletter item continues with a criticism of this campaign, and of myself in particular as can be gleaned from the jibe about "aromatherapy journalists". The writer goes on to parrot the ATC's stock reply, here paraphrased: Blame the big cosmetic companies for the demise of sandalwood and rosewood, not us.
As far as the ATC is concerned, it's perfectly acceptable for small aromatherapy firms to continue trading on the spoils of environmental destruction. For small essential oil suppliers are mere innocents struggling to earn a crust in a long chain of supply.
Rather than commenting further in this section, please see my reply below to the ATC's Sylvia Baker in the section headed, "Shirking in Cloud Cuckoo Land While Forests Burn".
“Sandalwood is probably endangered, so we are contemplating not selling it.” (October 2002)
“Sandalwood is probably endangered, so we are contemplating not selling it.” (October 2003)
“Sandalwood is probably endangered, so we are contemplating not selling it.” (October 2004)
"Sandalwood is probably endangered, so we are contemplating not selling it." (October 2005)
"Sandalwood is probably endangered..."
Essential oil supplier, UK
No doubt this meditative supplier will continue to contemplate his navel until the very last Santal tree has been harvested.
8th Nov 2005
Please be aware that certain essential oil suppliers are now selling endangered Aniba rosaeodora from Guyana and related rosewood species from Peru. Without a shred of supporting evidence, they silver tongue unwitting customers into believing that such sources of the oil are produced in a sustainable manner.
As you will see from the IUCN Red Book listings below, all sources of rosewood oil obtained from the heartwood is captured in an extremely destructive manner from endangered tree species struggling to survive in equally endangered rainforest habitats.
Yet one rosewood and sandalwood oil trader and aromatherapy 'educator' of my acquaintance scoffs at the hard evidence presented on this site with the risible comment, "Well the Green lobby would put their spin on it wouldn't they."
While another proclaims, "Our importer [of sandalwood oil from India] who has visited the area many times, is satisfied with the environmental position there...And remember that much of the scaremongering about sandalwood is referring to the oil from other countries than India..."
Yet promoters of Australian sandalwood oil (from threatened Santalum spicatum) are all too willing to recognise the dire picture in India. For Australian sandalwood is being heavily marketed as a 'sustainable' alternative to endangered Indian sandalwood! Funny how the blindfold of an opportunist will always slip from one eye the moment the cash register pings.
And so it goes on - the excuses, denials, condemnations and games of pass-the-buck, increasingly farcical.
Click here to see the Red Book listing for rosewood
Click here to see the Red Book listing for sandalwood
TROUBLE AT THE OIL MILL
Deeply concerned about the public's increasing eco awareness, coupled with the fear of 'losing face', some traders are resorting to making unsubstantiated and emotive therapeutic claims for sandalwood, while at the same time kidding customers that buying oils from threatened aromatic species - including oils produced from the spoils of deforestation - will help the poor in developing countries. The aim is to beguile customers into feeling obliged to buy such products - or at the very least to encourage us to go away quietly with the impression that the oil seller is nothing less than a philanthropist.
Let's be clear, only the brokers, wholesalers and retailers make a goodly profit from the essential oils of threatened aromatic plants and trees. Certainly it's not the plant gatherers (mainly impoverished women and children) and forest workers who are paid a pittance for their labours. Indeed, officially authenticated Fair Trade is an alien concept within the essential oil trade.
"Sandalwood is a vital ingredient in natural preparations for cancer and has saved lives" - Herbal practitioner and essential oil seller, USA
"When I was working with children with autism and behavioural problems, a turning point on more than one occasion was Sandalwood, and there was no substitution" - Essential oil seller and specialist advisor to the Aromatherapy Trade Council, UK
First, sandalwood and cancer. After much discussion with the practitioner, it transpired that powdered sandalwood was being used merely as a binding agent for a paste which is applied to the skin. Even more interesting, I finally fathomed that the paste was prepared with so-called red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus), which is a non-aromatic tree totally unrelated to true sandalwood (Santalum spp.) The practitioner appeared not to realise this, for she made no distinction between the species!
Do correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I'm aware red sandalwood has scant healing properties, other than being mildly astringent, and is valued mainly as a source of a red dye. Unfortunately, Pterocarpus santalinus is yet another CITES Appendix II listed threatened tree native to India.
But even if it had been powdered Santalum album (unavailable from legal sources in Europe due to Indian government restrictions on exports of the raw material), chances are it would have little (if any) therapeutic value. For most powdered sandalwood available in the USA is the spent material remaining after distillation of the essential oil. The product is commonly sold to the incense industry and used as a base for making joss sticks, often re-scented with a synthetic odorant. And, as pointed out in my article 'Spotlight on the Trade in Wild Plants', many of these factories employ young children as cheap labour, forcing them to work very long hours under the most appalling conditions.
As for the strong suggestion that sandalwood oil is indispensable for children with autism and behavioural problems, well this is a despicable attempt to engender guilt in those eco-ethical aromatherapists who have chosen to avoid sandalwood for all the reasons highlighted on this website.
Since when has sandalwood, or indeed any other botanical remedy, had the power to influence brain chemistry to such an incredible extent as to heal a child with autism or severe behavioural problems?
In reality, as any aromatherapist working holistically with such children will confirm, aromatherapy is complementary to several other supportive approaches aimed at managing the condition. Treatment is tailored to individual need, thus there is always a choice of possible essential oils (including blends of oils) and methods of application for such purposes as aiding attention span and reducing anxiety levels. Indeed, aromatherapists working with autistic children have also found oils from cultivated plant sources beneficial, such as peppermint, cardomon, lavender, rose, clary sage, orange, neroli and Roman chamomile.
If you have encountered similar emotionally manipulative marketing claims for sandalwood, rosewood or any other threatened plant or tree featured on this website, please don't hesitate to let us know about it. Rest assured, your privacy will be respected at all times.
Image:
A BIZARRE REQUEST FROM THE AROMATHERAPY TRADE COUNCIL
In a joint letter to Sylvia Baker (spokeswoman and administrator for the ATC), Tony Burfield and I informed her of the worrying fact that the entire ATC Board were selling threatened aromatics through their respective companies. At the present time (October 2004) this is still the case.
So in a subsequent email written on behalf of the ATC (dated 17th September 2004), Sylvia Baker asked me to identify the names of the Board members and the threatened aromatics involved. My obvious reaction was that Sylvia Baker and the entire ATC Board were claiming not to know which threatened species they were selling - for why else would she request this information?
It therefore seems distinctly curious that the ATC has recently set itself up as advisor on conservation issues to other organisations, as stated in their letter reproduced on the 'Good News' section of this website:
"The ATC's membership of the European Federation of Essential Oils (EFEO) will enable it to raise awareness of the whole concept of conservation as an environmental issue at European level. We will strongly propose that this important topic is discussed at the forthcoming IFEAT Conference in Lisbon in October. This is just one of the bodies we will be consulting with."
Beneath the veneer of this PR exercise in eco-awareness raising, the ATC is proclaiming, "do as we say, not as we do." Therefore, it's seemingly audacious of Sylvia Baker to feel justified in objecting to the following comment to be found on the 'Good News' page of this site:
"Supposedly eco-aware Sylvia Baker of the ATC had no idea which threatened aromatics were being sold by the ATC Board, thus she asked Chrissie Wildwood to name the individual Board members and the threatened species involved."
Despite her considerable position as spokeswoman and administrator for the ATC - and the fact that she is paid by the ATC for her consultancy services - Sylvia Baker attempts to shirk all personal responsibility for what she writes, maintaining she merely responds to the requests of the ATC Board. Therefore, she has asked me to remove the above comment from this website, exclaiming:
"I've never claimed to be 'eco-aware' whatever that might mean."
And in so saying, she pin-points the problem - for the lack of authentic eco-awareness within the essential oil trade is precisely why this campaign was launched!
SHIRKING IN CLOUD CUCKOO LAND WHILE FORESTS BURN
Some ATC approved essential oil suppliers claim to be selling IBAMA approved rosewood oil. IBAMA is the Brazilian government conservation body supposedly controlling the production of rosewood oil and the trade in timber species such as endangered mahogany. However, a number of IBAMA officials have been implicated in a whole string of corruption charges, including taking bribes from logging companies. As current satellite pictures of the Amazonian rainforest show, rampant clear-fell logging continues unabated. The latest more sophisticated satellite images reveal that even selective logging as advocated by the Forest Stewardship Council is destroying the Amazon rainforest to an alarming degree previously uncalculated ("Scientist" journal Oct 21, 2005).
To dispel one of the greatest myths of our era: there is NO scientific evidence whatsoever to support the idea that ancient primary-growth forests can be sustainably harvested. For a forest is more than a collection of individual trees: it's a WHOLE ecosystem maintained through biodiversity and genetic diversity; through the myriad interactions of trees, plants, fungi, insects, animals, soil, micro-organisms - and the traditional ways of forest peoples. What we know for certain is that the intricate balance of a forest (especially tropical forest) is easily upset or destroyed by the excessive demands of commercial wild harvesting for a global market.
Please go back to those who pull your strings, Sylvia, and explain to them that aromatherapy is supposed to be a caring profession, with many of its practitioners and enthusiasts claiming to support the welfare of the planet that sustains all life. So your organisation, which has taken 'Aromatherapy' as its first name, should not be implicated in deforestation to any degree AT ALL. Blaming others for the greater crime is the oldest and most unethical shirk in the book.
Image:
Click here for just one of many reports of corruption within IBAMA
NEW: Click here for a recent report on sandalwood and associated political corruption in India
Exposing the myth of sustainable harvesting of tropical trees and some alternative proposals
Solutions to rainforest destruction and poverty
With my usual enthusiasm for philosophical discussion, I recently joined an exclusive email list devoted to eco-matters. After only a week, I felt the need to leave. For my 'deep green' worldview had become a thorn in the side for two well-respected psychology academics and pioneers in the field of ecopsychology.
Another member of the group is an agronomist working for Pioneer Seeds, a subsidary of the GM corporation Monsanto. So he's an advocate of Monsanto’s so-called conservation method of agriculture – a specialised no-till system currently being touted in Africa and other parts of the Third World. The system incorporates use of Monsanto’s toxic herbicide, ‘Roundup’ which is especially compatible for use with GM crops.
After launching into a heartfelt response explaining exactly why the actions of Monsanto et al should be regarded with suspicion, I was aghast to be met with abuse. Not from the pro-GM agronomist, as you might expect, but from one of the ecopsychologists! He scolded me for my "politically correct, fundamentalist, knee-jerk reaction" against the biotechnology industry. Then counselled me to seek the "pearls of wisdom among the swine". At the same time, he was scathing about the work of eco-activist Vandana Shiva, a courageous woman campaigning on behalf of peasant farmers in India, many of whom have committed suicide under Monsanto’s agricultural regime. Whilst begrudgingly admitting "she’s good", in the same sentence he dismisses her as a "polemicist". Her passion, her compassion, her life's work, reduced to the level of an intellectual exercise in contrariness.
Having become angry with me for daring to confront him over such comments, in an astonishing outburst in defence of Monsanto, the professor blames Vandana Shiva for the wretched circumstances of the peasant farmers!
Bullying by the two revered male psychologists continued with the ‘f’ word (fundamentalist) spouted at every opportuntity. My approach was even likened to that of the Bush regime - although I quickly pointed out, "My eyes are better spaced than those of Mr President!" Then they aped each other with the incongruous opinion that even ‘deep green’ farmers and gardeners use herbicides, presumably including 'Roundup'.
Moreover, I was expected to accept the ridiculous notion that even the founder of the Deep Ecology movement, Arne Naess, would not shun the use of herbicides – that is to say, provided time had been spent in deep thought before spraying! In other words, by donning a pair of deep-green tinted specs, it's permissable to poison plants, soil, air and water with a chemical labeled ECO-DENIAL.
The reason I’m withholding names is because the email list referred to above is private. However, this story illustrates how easy it is for some individuals (particularly academics I suspect) to become so obsessed with being ‘rational’ or 'neutral' that they are in danger of straying from their calling - in this case, the eco-path - taking leave of common sense in the process.
Click here for Vandana Shiva's article about globalisation, GM seed and India's suicide economy.
For more information on the hazards of using Roundup and other glyphosate herbicides click here
Image:
Fool's parsley or poisonous hemlock lingers beguilingly in damp shady places - so watch out dear friend, lest you should be taken unawares!
Other pages:
This is the text-only version of this page. Click here to see this page with graphics.
Edit this page |
Manage website
Make Your Own Website: 2-Minute-Website.com