Much has been written about the healing and aesthetic virtues of rosewood essential oil. Yet in most aromatherapy books there is scant mention of the dire need to save this Amazonian rainforest tree and its habitat from extinction. This is no exaggeration, for rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora Ducke and related species) is the victim of many years of predatory ‘harvesting’ by the perfume industry, and more recently for the aromatherapy and natural cosmetic markets.
In 1997, somewhat belatedly, Aniba rosaeodora Ducke was added to the World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Species and categorised as EN A1d + 2d. This means the tree is near to critically endangered with extinction possible within our own life time.
IBAMA, the Brazilian federal government’s Institute for the Environment, is responsible for licensing timber felling in the Amazonian rainforest and the monitoring of rainforest destruction. Rosewood is one of a number of endangered tree species under IBAMA management. Yet IBAMA is virtually powerless to prevent illicit cutting of rosewood – except to a limited degree within the vicinity of Manaus where the agency is based.
Recent satellite pictures reveal that an area of Amazonian rainforest the size of Belgium was burned and clear-felled in 2002-2003 alone. IBAMA admits that deforestation is out of control with 80% of all logging being carried out illegally. It’s also worrying to learn from environmentalists working in the region that a great deal of illegal logging is spurred by corruption within the IBAMA agency itself, with forest officials taking bribes and even issuing illegal permits to timber companies (Reuters, 2003).
ENTER ‘ADOPT-A-TREE IN THE AMAZON’ PROGRAMME
Dr Manuel Lima and his colleagues at the Forestry Department of the Federal University of the Amazonas in Brazil have initiated a rosewood replanting project within the communities of Nossa Senhora do Perpetuo Socorro and Marcos Freire in the Municipality of Presidente Figueiredo.
Currently, there is no government funding available for the ‘Adopt-a-Tree in the Amazon’ project which is financed by donations from the aromatherapy community, participating organisations and 'eco-tourists'. The University based AFCEA (Forest Association for the Conservation of the Amazon Ecosystem) is the non-government organisation responsible for the project.
To overcome the difficulties of cultivating the degraded soil remaining after deforestation, rosewood and other endangered native trees such as mahogany and Amazonian cedar are being planted within an agroforestry system, a sustainable form of agriculture inspired by the traditional methods of indigenous forest peoples. By growing annual crops together with perennials, this loosely mimics the diversity of the surrounding forest.
Fruit trees and timber trees are intercropped with staple food crops such as cassava. Plants from the leguminous family (e.g. bean crops and trees such as Dipteryx odorata) play a vital role in agroforestry systems, for they fix nitrogen in the soil, increasing its fertility and negating the need for artificial fertilizers. Plants grown under such conditions are healthier and less likely to succumb to disease and infestations.
Instead of extracting essential oil from the heartwood of felled wild trees, as is the norm, it’s hoped that within five years the plantation trees can be coppiced periodically in order to distil a differing essential oil extracted from the leaves and twigs. The aim is to sell this sustainable source of rosewood leaf oil to the multinational perfume industry and the international aromatherapy market, thus providing an additional source of income for the participating communities.
However, distillation of rosewood leaf oil is still in the experimental stage and a reliable market for the product has yet to be established. Further, since rosewood (all Aniba species) appears never to have been cultivated by indigenous peoples, distillation technology being unknown to tribal societies, it’s too early to ascertain whether the species can withstand continual coppicing without a reduction in vitality.
DEFORESTATION AND THE PEOPLE
The local people participating in the Adopt-a-Tree project are migrant subsistence farmers of mixed Amerindian and Portuguese descent, their communities established by the Brazilian government in the early 1980s.
As a result of skewed government land policy, peasant farmers are actively encouraged to slash-and-burn a piece rainforest and cultivate it with annual crops for a year or two until soil fertility declines. The plot is then turned to pasture for small-scale cattle grazing, whereupon the squatter is usually granted title to the land. Essentially, cattle are a vehicle for land ownership in the Amazon. Once the soil becomes so depleted that it can no longer even support pasture (after about 5 years), the farmer moves deeper into the forest to start the process again.
It's a huge error of judgement, however, to put all the blame on itinerant peasant farmers. It's essential to look at the bigger picture in order to learn a little more about the direct and indirect causes of deforestation which are complex.
Aside from subsistence agricultural practices, direct causes include large-scale commercial interests such as cattle ranching (with some ranches receiving government subsidies), logging, tobacco plantations, soya bean farming, industrial tree plantations, mining and infrastructure development, such as roads which open up vast expanses of forest hitherto inaccessbile to loggers and mining corporations. Underlying all this, Brazil, like many other developing countries, is heavily indebted to the US dominated World Bank and its network.
Bowing to pressure from campaigning organisations, the World Bank has started to fund smaller, more environmentally acceptable projects – although at the same time continues to provide colossal loans for such projects as the construction of highways and dams. In order simply to pay off the interest on such loans (with some debts going back to the 1970s), governments are compelled to sell land and resources to the multinational corporations and so the process of environmental destruction perpetuates.
What about the indigenous peoples whose land is being plundered? Tragically, even though International Law recognises the rights of indigenous peoples to legal tenure of their ancestral homelands, the Brazilian government, among other governments, continues to violate those rights. Indeed, the Amazonian forest peoples are regarded as an obstruction to industrial development and are in continual conflict with the government, multinational corporations and international development agencies who have taken control of their lands and who consistently ignore their basic human rights, and often even their very existence.
The Brazilian government’s bureaucratic Indian affairs agency, FUNAI, has been described as ‘corrupt’ by many human rights agencies, including Survival International and Amnesty International. As well as aiding and abetting ‘development’ through partnerships with corporations, it has a sordid history of forcibly evicting indigenous peoples from their lands. As a result of intense pressure from human rights activists, the FUNAI agency has resettled a few tribes on reserves, portraying itself as a ‘guardian’ of the Indians and their territories.
Returning to forest conservation, despite widely held assumptions to the contrary, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support the idea that ancient primary-growth forests can be used as a sustainable industrial resource. For a forest is more than a collection of individual trees: it's a whole ecosystem, a living entity maintained through biodiversity and genetic diversity; through the myriad interactions of soil, trees, plants, fungi, insects, birds, animals, micro-organisms - and the traditional ways of forest peoples.
Indeed, forest peoples the world over are now recognised as having unparalleled knowledge of how to manage tropical forests in a truly sustainable way, having lived a self-sufficient and reciprocal relationship with the forest for millennia.
According to conservation agencies such as the Rainforest Information Centre and the Rainforest Action Network, the most successful projects to save rainforests are those which have been carried out in co-operation with the traditional owners of the forests – and those aimed at drastically reducing or negating dependency on the fickle and inequitable global economy. We also know that the intricate balance of a rainforest is easily upset or destroyed through the excessive demands of a global market.
For example, even Brazil nut harvests are diminishing. This is because the same forest trees have been exploited for over forty years and their fertility is waning. Natural regeneration has been curtailed due to over-harvesting of the nuts from the forest floor. Of course, it’s extremely difficult for impoverished people to resist the temptation to over-harvest when collecting for the voracious world market.
ECOTOURISM AND THE ADOPT-A-TREE PROJECT
The Brazilian government, through its Ministry of the Environment, has recently borrowed millions of dollars from the Inter-American Development Bank which is part of the World Bank Network. The money is being invested in ecotourism and infrastructure (for yet more roads and dams) in the Amazonian region. The communities participating in the Adopt-a-Tree Project are beneficiaries of some of this funding (Marques, 2000).
According to standards set out by the Sustainable Tourist Stewardship Council, for a project to be categorised as ‘ecotourism’ it must promote conservation and provide an educational experience as well as integrating the local residents. Accommodation is built in the local style, utilising recycled materials whenever possible. It’s comfortable but basic and usually equipped with a compost toilet. Energy conservation is a high priority and renewable sources (e.g. solar power) included whenever practicable. Recycling facilities are essential.
In a paper published by Sherre Nelson (Nelson, 2000), written before she become a manager of the Adopt-a-Tree project, the ‘eco-lodges’ within the vicinity of Nossa Senhora De Perpetuo Socorro Do Acajatuba fall far short of the above criteria – most not even providing recycling facilities. None of this is mentioned in the Adopt-a-Tree marketing material. Subsequent communication with Sherre Nelson confirms that not much has changed on the 'eco' front since the original field study. It's telling that the regions covered by the Adopt-a-Tree project are not listed by organisations concerned with what is now regarded as authentic ecotourism.
The lodges are constructed from timber extracted from the surrounding area which is an environmentally destructive practice. The largest lodge is actually an upmarket hotel with an obtrusively high observation tower, 210 rooms, two swimming pools, a games room, two restaurants and a swanky celebrity guest list which includes Jimmy Carter, the Swedish royal family and a galaxy of Hollywood stars!
The local people are used as cheap and unofficial seasonal labour in the lodges and are expected to work very long hours. Official full-time employment requires employers to pay social contributions which would be of signficant benefit to their employees - a responsibility many employers are choosing to avoid.
The better paid and more prestigious jobs (e.g. tour guides) are offered to educated people from outside the communities. The people of Nossa Senhora do Perpetuo Socorro de Acajutuba do, however, sell their own handicrafts in the community gift shops. Sometimes the same goods are sold in the lodges at inflated prices, the additional profit going to the lodge owners.
Villagers also rely on handouts of food, money and other gifts from tourists and tour guides, and donations of diesel from the lodge owners to run electricity generators in the village. Although given and received in good heart, arguably this paternalistic approach fosters over-dependence on the dominant culture.
As for ecotourism in the Municipality of Presidente Figueiredo, astoundingly the environmentally catastrophic Balbina dam and hydro-electric plant on the Uatuma River is being promoted by the Brazilian government as an eco-attraction! Fernando Vieira, Mayor of Presidente Figuerido, has said of the dam, ‘First, it provides the energy required for industrial complexes to be established. Second, it allows ecotourism to be exploited in every possible way’ (as quoted on the Brazilian government Waimiri-Atroari Programme website).
Certainly the indigenous Waimiri-Atroari peoples have been ruthlessly exploited by the European colonisers for centuries. In recent decades, they have suffered the psycho-spiritual, emotional and physical consequences of being forcibly resettled to allow for mining and the construction of a highway (to transport ore) through the centre of their lands. The Balbina dam was completed in 1986 with the help of a $500 million World Bank loan – flooding 2,400 square kilometres of rainforest north of Manaus, once again forcing the Waimiri-Atroari off their lands and causing immense suffering.
As well as the obvious ecological impact of flooding such a vast region of rainforest, further unforeseen problems have emerged. The water in the reservoir is now so acidic as a result of decomposing vegetation trapped beneath the water that it causes the turbines to corrode every few years, thereby making the whole project uneconomic.
The Waimiri-Atroari have since been resettled in a reserve created by the Waimiri-Atroari Programme – a partnership between the notorious FUMAI agency for Indian affairs and Electronorte, the power company responsible for constructing the Balbina dam. Interestingly, another manager on the Adopt-a-Tree project is Robert Miller who has worked on the Waimiri-Atroari Programme for 10 years (Lima, 2004). However, he failed to reply to my request for further information about his work.
THE QUESTION OF CERTIFICATION
As well as endorsing IBAMA’s highly questionable claim that production of rosewood oil (extracted from felled wild trees) is being managed sustainably, Dr Manuel Lima maintains that IBAMA officials have effectively curbed illegal logging in the region!
In addition to IBAMA certification, he proposes the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as a possible certification body for the Adopt-a-Tree Project’s rosewood leaf oil. At the time of writing, the FSC is planning on developing a certification scheme for sustainably managed non-timber forest products such as essential oils – including those oils extracted from felled rainforest trees!
The problem with the FSC is that its management plans look good on paper, but are proving nigh on impossible to implement, leaving the inspection procedures wide open to abuse. Indeed, several conservation agencies are highly critical of the FSC, including the Rainforest Foundation which is campaigning for the organisation to meet its obligations. Besides, as mentioned earlier, the whole idea of ‘sustainable’ logging of tropical forests is without scientific validation.
I asked Dr Lima whether the project is planning to use one of the few remaining rosewood oil distilleries in Manaus to distil the community-grown rosewood leaves. He confirms this is their intention. Clearly, then, the Adopt-a-Tree project is promoting the inept IBAMA in order ensure that the market for rosewood oil remains bouyant. Thus, contradicting the project’s stated aims to conserve rosewood and restore the Amazonian ecosystem. A further contradiction is that the same distillery is likely to continue producing the unsustainable oil from felled wild trees, alongside the sustainable leaf oil!
Dr Lima also mentions that the project may have the option of working in partnership with the essential oil producer, Magama. On further investigation, it transpires that Magama operates in partnership with the Swiss owned company, Precious Woods Amazon. Hence, some of the oils produced by Magama are distilled from timber waste (e.g. sawdust and stumps) of primary-growth forest. The timber is certified by the FSC.
Magama also sponsored Dr Lima’s recent trip to the UK – his mission being to raise awareness of a number of relatively unknown rainforest aromatics, including essential oils extracted from the wood of endangered tree species, which could be exploited for the aromatherapy market. An alarming prospect to those concerned about the commercial exploitation of ancient forest trees, especially as the essential oils of these species are likely to be marketed under the ‘eco’ banner.
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Above is a satellite image of the Precious Woods Amazon management plan, demonstrating a network of roads into the deep forest. These roads facilitate the entrance of slash-and-burn agricultural colonists.
Image use by kind permission of Klemens Laschefski, author of 'Seeing the Wood for the Trees,' an investigation into the myth of sustainable certified tropical timber.
Click here to read "Seeing the Wood for the Trees"
IN CONCLUSION
Although the ecotourism element of the Adopt-a-Tree project leaves a great deal to be desired, on balance the agroforestry system is worthy of support. As well as recovering degraded land and demonstrating a sustainable alternative to itinerant slash-and-burn agriculture, it diversifies production to avoid over-reliance on one particular crop (e.g. Brazil nuts) which would leave the community vulnerable should harvests begin to diminish, or if the market for a particular product declines.
As yet, there is no guarantee that the rosewood leaf oil will be of an acceptable quality to satisfy the targeted markets. Additionally, the prices of cash crops are notoriously volatile. It would therefore be worthwhile for the communities to investigate the possibility of signing up with the Fairtrade Foundation. There are many benefits to Fairtrade, including entitlement to partial advance payment on orders – often vital to small producers with limited financial resources.
This would be infinitely more sensible than spending money on FSC certification or other such schemes. The enormous success of Fairtrade coffee, chocolate, tea, wine, honey, flowers (and other goods) confirms that there is growing body of ethical consumers who are prepared to pay more for products if it can be seen to benefit poor farmers directly.
As holistic healers recognise, not only is it important to soothe the overlying symptoms of a malaise, an attempt is also made to address the underlying causes. Likewise, we need to address the underlying causes of deforestation. For all the reasons explained earlier, we might start by supporting those agencies calling for the abolition of Third World debt, such as the Jubilee Debt Campaign. Also, organisations supporting indigenous groups – for example, Survival International whose work is focused on helping tribal peoples gain legal title to their ancestral homelands.
Individually and collectively, we in the over-developed world must curb our obsession with economic growth in perpetuity. It’s simply not sustainable. For sustainability is a state of equilibrium: a practice that can carry on indefinitely without resulting in deficit or any other form of imbalance.
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Baines, S.G. 1993 'Government Indigenist Policy and the Waimiri-Atroari Indians: Indigenist Administration, Tin Mining and the Construction of Directed Indian ‘Self-Determination’ in Brazilian Amazon', Universidade de Brasilia.
Freris N, Laschefski, K. 2001 'Seeing the Wood from the Trees', The Ecologist Vol.1: 6
Laschefski, K. 2004, personal communication with author.
Lima, 2003 'The Virtues of Rosewood', Aromatherapy Times (Autumn).
Lima, M. 2004, personal communication with author.
Marques, L.C. 2000 'An Evaluation of Eco-lodges in the Brazilian Amazon', paper presented at the Cuarta Feria Ecotouristica y de Produccion.
Marques, L.C. 2004, personal communication with the author.
Nelson, S. 2000 'The Inter-Relationship Between Nature Based Tourism in a Community and Nearby Lodges in the Brazilian Amazon', paper presented at the Cuarta Feria Ecoturistica y de Produccion.
Nelson, S. 2004, personal communication with author.
Reuters News Service 2003 (17th Sept) 'Brazil Snags 17 in Raid on Illegal Logging'.
Wildwood, C. 2003 'Mood Enhancing Plants', published by C.W Daniel/Random House
Since publication of the above article, together with my report, "Spotlight on the Trade in Wild Plants" and subsequent heated discussions with the Soil Association featured on this site, a recent report in the respected scientific journal "Science" (Oct 21, 2005) supports everything we independent thinking eco-activists have been saying all along.
Contrary to the belief of mainstream groups such as WWF, Greenpeace International, the UK Soil Association, Ecocert and the Forest Stewardship Council, old-growth tropical forests CANNOT be selectively logged on a sustainable basis.
As highlighted in my own article above, satellite images reveal the true picture of Amazonian rainforest destruction, which is in stark contrast to the rosy picture painted by Dr Manuel Lima, Ecocert (they certify as 'organic' rosewood oil captured from the heartwood of Amazonian forest trees felled for the purpose) the Forest Stewardship Council et al.
With the aid of even more sophisticated satellite tracking, we now know that selective logging is destroying huge swathes of the Amazon rainforest each year. Indeed, whether the logging is illegal or 'certified', the practice is resulting in the breakdown of fragile ecosystems.
As an illustration of this, forest clearing with heavy machinery and road building through the forest in order to access the selected tree species allows in strong sunlight. This dries out the forest floor, increasing the number of forest fires. At the same time, constant traffic of people and vehicles damages the soil structure, resulting in loss of vital soil microbes essential for maintaining genetic diversity. Loss of genetic diversity in plants and animals results in increased risk of disease and eventual loss of species.
In the Amazon Basin alone, the forest debris left behind by industrial logging decomposes and releases millions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere each year. The detrimental effects of selective logging is currently cited as the main cause of the region's worst drought in 40 years.
As we all know, excessive levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide is accelerating global climate change with devastating ramifications.
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(C) Chrissie Wildwood 2004 and 2005, all rights reserved
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