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’ for 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 (reported by Reuters News Agency, 17th September 2003).

A FOREST IS MORE THAN A COLLECTION OF TREES

   Despite widely held assumptions to the contrary, there is no scientific

    evidence whatsoever to support the idea that ancient primary-growth forests

    can 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.

ENTER THE ‘ADOPT-A-TREE’ IN THE AMAZON PROGRAMME

Dr Manuel Lima and his colleagues in 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 tourists to the region.

The local people participating in the planting project are migrant subsistence farmers of mixed Amerindian and Portuguese descent – their communities having been established by the Brazilian government in the early 1980s. Therefore, they have scant traditional knowledge of how to manage the forest in a sustainable manner.

As a result of skewed government land policy, substance 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. 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.

Of course, the driving forces behind deforestation are multifaceted and complex. Suffice it to say here, 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 farming, industrial tree plantations, mining and infrastructure development, such as roads which open up vast areas of forest hitherto inaccessible to loggers and mining corporations.

Returning to the Adopt-a-Tree project, to overcome the difficulties of cultivating the degraded soil remaining after deforestation, rosewood is being planted with other endangered native trees such as mahogany and Amazonian cedar within an agroforestry system. This is a sustainable form of agriculture inspired by the traditional methods of indigenous forest peoples. By growing annual crops together with perennials on small patches of land, this loosely mimics the diversity of the surrounding forest.

Fruit trees and timber trees are grown together with staple 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 the roots fix nitrogen in the soil, increasing its fertility and negating the need for artificial fertilizers. Plants grown under these 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 rosewood trees can be coppiced periodically in order to distil an essential oil from the leaves and twigs. The aim is to sell this sustainable source of rosewood oil to the multinational perfume industry and the international aromatherapy market, thus providing an additional source of income for the participating communities.

PROS AND CONS OF THE PROJECT

The project is certainly worthwhile from the agroforestry perspective. As well as recovering degraded former rainforest terrain, it demonstrates a sustainable alternative to itinerant slash-and-burn agriculture. It also diversifies production to avoid over-reliance on one particular crop (e.g. Brazil nuts) which would leave the communities vulnerable should harvests begin to diminish, or if the market for a particular product declines.

However, distillation of rosewood leaf oil is still in the experimental stage. There is no guarantee that the quantity and quality of the oil will meet the demands of the perfumery and aromatherapy industries. 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 trees will withstand continual coppicing without a reduction in vitality.

If, however, the communities do succeed in producing a marketable product, it may still prove difficult to obtain a fair price for the oil when competing in the global marketplace. Indeed, prices for cash crops are notoriously volatile. As a way forward, it would certainly be worthwhile for the community leaders to investigate the possibility of signing up with the Fairtrade Foundation. There are many benefits to Fairtrade, including entitlement to partial advanced payment on orders which can be vital to small producers with limited financial resources.

IN CONCLUSION

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.

We might start by supporting those agencies working with indigenous groups – for example, Survival International whose work is focused on helping tribal peoples gain legal title in perpetuity to their ancestral homelands. Indeed, recognising the human rights of indigenous peoples to live in traditional self-sufficiency (if this is their expressed desire) is the only assured way to prevent further deforestation, and destruction of other indigenous homelands, by governments and multinational interests.

Above all, individually and collectively we in the over-developed world must curb our obsession with unbridled economic growth and over-consumption of Earth’s finite resources. 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.

This article is extracted from an investigative report into the Adopt-a-Tree in the Amazon Programme, which includes a critique of the so-called ‘ecotourism’ element of the project not covered in this summary. Additionally, the article takes a closer look at the direct and indirect causes of deforestation and associated human rights abuses of indigenous tribes. To read the complete article, visit: www.chrissie-wildwood.com