A Guide for Buying Sustainable Essential Oils

By Jah Skipper

The following document “A Guide for Buying Sustainable Essential Oils” is an exclusive resource made available freely by Jah Skipper and the AromaGnosis Online School. It is an adapted excerpt from one of the lessons of the online course “A​ Comprehensive Guide for Buying Essential Oils”​.

Copyright disclaimer: The​ following Guide is copyrighted. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this guide is prohibited. No part of this guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system. Brief excerpts may be used for non-commercial educational and personal reasons. Any excerpts for commercial use require written permission from AromaGnosis Online School. Copyright 2019.

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Introduction

Global is undergoing the sixth largest event recorded in the history of our planet. This time around, for the first time, human activities are mainly to blame for this extreme loss of biodiversity [1].

Graph: Cumulative vertebrate recorded as extinct or by the IUCN (2012), from the peer review article ​“​Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction”​, written by Ceballos in 2015 [2].

Plant species are no exception. are estimated to be going extinct at rates from 100 to 1000 times higher than projected natural rates [3]. ​Of the 50,000 to 80,000 flowering plants used for medicinal reasons, 15,000 are threatened with extinction due to overharvesting [4]. In the case of (EO) producing plants, from my reading it seems that at this current time the information has not been gathered in adequate detail.

Undoubtedly, with many wild populations of EO producing plants under considerable harvesting pressure, the huge amounts of material required for relatively small yields (versus other herbal uses), the projected growth of aromatherapy within the next years, the increasing global population, and general habitat degradation and loss will likely have a grave negative impact on the survival of some EO producing plants. This guide will give you the crucial tools to help you ensure that you are making the most sustainable choices when picking your essential oils!

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Wildcrafted Products

The ​1993 Guidelines on the Conservation of Medicinal Plants by the IUCN already notes that one of the key ways to conserve these plants is to cultivate them as much as possible instead wildcrafting them. Keeping within this logic, this guide will focus on wildcrafted plant sources since they are a much higher conservation priority than cultivated products.

Picture: Helichrysum​​ sp., seen in the wild, Tolima Páramos - Colombia, Jah Skipper

The existence of a cultivated plant is usually determined mainly by their relative usefulness and desirability at that time for the functions attributed to them by humans, whereas wild plants for the most part came into existence regardless of their usefulness to humans and exist (for the most part) independently from human-made agricultural systems. If we lose a variety of lavender from our agricultural system, as long as the wild plant representatives used to select the lost cultivar still exist, we can repeat the domestication process and derive hundreds of new cultivars that could replace the lost one and potentially introduce new benefits and characteristics to our collection of cultivated plants. ​However, if we lose wild lavender species, there is no way to replace them. The medical, genetic and evolutionary heritage that they represent is gone forever! While we need to acknowledge the sustainability challenges of human agro-economic systems (pesticides, surface area uses, yields, transport..), the following guide will be focused on wild plants. If you want to ensure that the cultivated EO products you’re interested in are sustainable, see the section on ‘Organic’ cultivated essential oils in my class “​A Comprehensive Guide to Buying Essential Oils​”, where we discuss the different origins of EO’s in greater detail.

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The Main Organisations and Tools for Checking the Sustainability of Essential Oils

As EO consumers, one of the best ways to identify the species that may not be sustainable is to refer to:

● The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List

● The CITES (Convention on International Trade in of Wild Fauna

and Flora) trade agreements

We will learn how they work and how we can use the information to help us become more sustainable EO consumers.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red listing process has gained wide recognition as an invaluable tool to assess extinction risk, evaluating threats and establishing global and regional conservation actions to bring back species from the verge [5], [6]. It is currently one of the most widely used tools to help define extinction risk and can be extremely helpful to make more sustainable choices about EO plant species.

This red listing process provides a defined extinction risk category for the plant you are researching. For more details and to research a plant go to: https://www.iucnredlist.org/​​ .

Screenshot: IUCN red list main website search bar

Each category in the Red List represents a different degree of extinction risk, which will be discussed below.

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IUCN Categories and Criteria The assessment process for each species follows the international standard method for the Global assessment of extinction risk set by the IUCN Guidelines, v 11 (2014)​. Let’s take a brief look at the criteria and categories used by the IUCN to help make better sense of this information as consumers. Taxon means “​a taxonomic group of any rank, such as a species, family, or class.” There are nine categories of extinction risk. (See Diagram below).

Diagram: categories implemented during IUCN assessments. From The IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. (Note: (DD) and Not Evaluated (NE) are not pictured.)

Category definitions

To fully appreciate how these categories are given and what they mean refer to the The Global assessment of extinction risk set by the IUCN Guidelines, v 11 (2014)​. Below we will take a simplified view of these categories for the purpose of this guide.

EXTINCT (EX) A taxon is ​Extinct when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died.

EXTINCT IN THE WILD (EW) A taxon is ​Extinct in the Wild when it is known only to survive in cultivation, in captivity or as a naturalized population (or populations) well outside the past range.

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED (CR) A taxon that is ​ is considered to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.

ENDANGERED (EN) If a taxon is ​Endangered if it is considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

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VULNERABLE (VU) ​A taxon is ​Vulnerable if it is considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.

NEAR THREATENED (NT) A taxon is ​Near Threatened when it has been evaluated against the criteria but does not qualify for Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable now, but is close to qualifying for or is likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future.

LEAST CONCERN (LC) A taxon is ​Least Concern when it has been evaluated against the criteria and does not qualify for Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable or Near Threatened. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.

DATA DEFICIENT (DD) A taxon is ​Data Deficient when there is inadequate information to make a direct, or indirect, assessment of its risk of extinction based on its distribution and/or population status.

NOT EVALUATED (NE) A taxon is ​Not Evaluated when it is has not yet been evaluated against the criteria

The extinction risk obviously gets higher as we move closer to the extinct category as described above. Refer to these categories when using the IUCN red list and when going through the questionnaire below to help determine the sustainability of the essential oil product you’re interested in.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora – CITES

Definition

According to the CITES website it defines itself as: “An international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.”

Screenshot: CITES checklist search tool available at h​ ttp://checklist..org

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Categories

CITES groups species under three possible categories according to their estimated extinction risks. Below are simplified descriptions of these three categories (called appendices) adapted from ​https://www.cites.org/eng/app/index.php​.

“​Appendix I: lists species that are the most endangered among CITES-listed animals and plants. They are threatened with extinction and CITES prohibits international trade in specimens of these species except when the purpose of the import is not commercial, for instance for scientific research.

Appendix II: lists species that are not necessarily now threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled. It also includes so-called “look-alike species”, i.e. species whose specimens in trade look like those of species listed for conservation reasons. International trade in specimens of Appendix-II species may be authorized by the granting of an export permit or re-export certificate.

Appendix III: is a list of species included at the request of a Party that already regulates trade in the species and that needs the cooperation of other countries to prevent unsustainable or illegal exploitation. International trade in specimens of species listed in this Appendix is allowed only on presentation of the appropriate permits or certificates.​”

From Theory to Practice – Using IUCN and CITES Databases

Now we have the information to understand what each organisation is and how they work, let’s apply it to EO-producing plants!

Starting with the IUCN

I have checked the IUCN threat category for more than 120 EO-producing species (Data available in “​ A Comprehensive Guide for Buying Essential Oils” online course). ​The vast majority (56.8%) have yet to be categorised under the IUCN red list protocol, meaning we don’t know their status! Based on current available knowledge I have compiled all the major EO-producing plants that fall within a IUCN category of Vulnerable to Critically Endangered. One species that has not yet been assessed but possibly needs to be considered as potentially threatened is ​Palo Santo (​Bursera graveolens)​. It is possible that I have omitted some important species or that new species fall within these categories over time in which case please contact me at [email protected]. Interestingly, 4 out of 5 of the included species are trees and the only herbaceous species ​ (​ jatamansi​) grows within a very specific habit in the Himalayan mountains. The slower population turnover combined with

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Vulnerable Endangered Critically Endangered

Elemi​ Canarium Atlas cedar​ Cedrus atlantica Spikenard​ Nardostachys luzonicum ​(Blume) (Endl.) Manetti ex Carrière jatamansi​ (D.Don) DC. A.Gray

Sandalwood ‘Rosewood’ ​Aniba Santalum album ​L. rosaeodora​ Ducke

Table: Summary table of the main EO producing plants listed under a IUCN threat category of Vulnerable or worse

What should we do about these wildcrafted EO Species?

While acknowledging limitations of the IUCN red list, it is nonetheless widely recognised as one of the most useful indicators for a particular species’ extinction risk. ​Knowing this, it seems that the most logical thing to do as a consumer is reduce as much as we can the causes that are threatening these wild plants, which means not buying them.

Surprisingly to me, every one of the above species is widely available as a wildcrafted EO product! (Just do a quick internet search for yourself.) Countries where these plants are native have varying degrees of laws and enforcement about wild harvesting of threatened plants.

Although two of the five vulnerable or worse species in the table above are also included in the CITES trade agreement, which means that special certifications are required to validate they’re sustainably harvested and their origin traceable, this is sometimes not enough to prevent overharvesting and worsening extinction risk. We will discuss this more.

My Advice: ​Even if the species is sold as a ”documented” and “sustainable” wild harvest, as a precaution, I would avoid buying ANY wildcrafted EO products of the above species. Why take the chance of contributing to increasing the risk of extinction when all the species in the above table are also available as a cultivated EO! If you want to know the detailed reported causes of threat affecting the species you are looking into, there is a very interesting summary under the category “threats in detail” for most of the red listed species seen at ​https://www.iucnredlist.org/​.

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Screenshot: Rosewood threat details as an example

What does the CITES database tell use?

I tried to be as comprehensive as possible and checked for any of the suspected EO producing plants in the CITES database and in particular a list of included medicinal plants (available at https://goo.gl/BGGH4H​). I found that two EO-producing plants were included. If you find any more that have been added and that I have omitted, contact me at [email protected].

Spikenard​ Nardostachys jatamansi​ (D.Don) DC. ‘Rosewood’​ Aniba rosaeodora Ducke

Both these species are in the Appendix 2 category (see above). In summary, this means that trade of these species is permitted as long as certain measures are taken to avoid worsening extinction risk. These measures include limiting the harvest volume, the dates of harvest, the size/maturity of harvested plants, etc. These measures are supposed to be closely regulated by the producing countries’ governing bodies. If the measures are taken a certificate of export if given. Other countries may have their own criteria for allowing the importation of these species.

Drawings: N​ ardostachys jatamansi​ (D.Don) DC., (Wikipedia Commons)

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What should we do about these wildcrafted EO Species?

You need to know that:

● Companies will sell blackmarket CITES listed species. Example: In 2015 the multi-level marketing company ​Young Living ​was fined $760,000 to insure they complied with EO trade laws after having sold non-documented “illegal” oils of spikenard Nardostachys jatamansi​ and ‘Rosewood’ ​Aniba rosaeodora. ● Even if regulations are followed for CITES species sometimes there’s a gap between the laws on paper and their enforcement. Read this interesting article on some limitations affecting ​Nardostachys jatamansi regulation and harvest in https://goo.gl/QJJDtX​.

My Advice: I would strongly advise against buying products obtained from the wildcrafted variant of the discussed species especially as they are available as cultivated variants!

If you do choose to buy wild crafted products from Rosewood or Spikenard you must make sure that the vendor clearly states that their products follow CITES rules and that proper documentation and traceability are available.

What to do if my EO species is neither on the IUCN red list or the CITES?

If a plant has not been evaluated by the IUCN, this does not guarantee that it is not threatened with extinction! As a rule of thumb, vulnerable plants are being evaluated more urgently. Still we cannot be sure if the plant is not in fact at risk, at least regionally. So what can we do?

We can’t do much as consumers at this point, apart from checking online for further documentation, if we feel inclined to. A good place is to look at national red lists, and regional conservation assessments for the areas your EO producing plant is known to be harvested from. These documents usually implement a similar treat category than that of the IUCN.

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Conclusion – Become informed

Some estimates (i.e. World Health Organisation) report around 80% of the global population still rely partially or fully on medicinal plants as a primary healthcare method. In the West, many of us are going back to these traditional methods and aromatherapy is one of the domains gaining wide adoption resulting from this “herbal revival”. ​However beneficial this “all natural” trend may be for us, we should be careful to not inadvertently contribute to the extinction of the plants that we are going to use and love!

To summarize, in this lesson we have learned about two of the most useful and regularly updated databases that can help us identify the wildcrafted species (essential oils or any other plant derived product) that we should avoid buying based on their risk of extinction, or at the very least ensure they are offered with proper documentation if on the CITES list.

So from now on we can make a conscious choice to purchase cultivated vs wildcrafted EO ‘s for the following species to help mitigate ongoing extinction risks:

● Elemi​ Canarium luzonicum,

● Sandalwood​ Santalum album

● Atlas cedar​ Cedrus atlantica

● ‘Rosewood’ ​Aniba rosaeodora

● Spikenard​ Nardostachys jatamansi

Looking out for our own internal “health” ecosystem should not lead to degradations to the natural ecosystems that provides us so many of our cures. In reality being sustainable is a necessary step towards the healthy living of not only use but also our kids.

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About the Author

Jah Skipper holds a Master's of science in Botany and has worked for plant conservation in the Moroccan High Atlas. He has also been teaching field botany to students from the “Ecole Lyonnaise des Plantes Medicinal” for the past 10 years. Drawing from his passion for botany and his involvement in the herbal medicine world of France and now America, his latest contribution has been to create a course that addresses all the main aspects one should consider while buying your essential oils. This new and exclusive course is a ​“A Comprehensive Guide for Buying Essential Oils”​.

“In a mostly unregulated market, it is up to us, the consumers to become self-reliant enough to discriminate potentially unsafe and lower quality oils” Jah Skipper

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References

[1] Ellis, E. C., Antill, E. C. & Kreft, H. 2012. All is not loss: plant biodiversity in the Anthropocene. PloS one, 7, e30535.

[2] Ceballos, G., Ehrlich, P.R., Barnosky, A.D., García, A., Pringle, R.M. and Palmer, T.M., 2015. Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction. S​ cience advances,​ ​1​(5), p.e1400253.

[3] Pimm S, Russell G, Gittleman J, Brooks T. The future of biodiversity. Science. 1995;269: 347.

[4] Chen, S.L., Yu, H., Luo, H.M., Wu, Q., Li, C.F. and Steinmetz, A., 2016. Conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants: problems, progress, and prospects. Chinese medicine, 11(1), p.37.

[5] McKinney, M. L. 1999. High rates of extinction and threat in poorly studied taxa. , 13, 1273-1281.

[6] Rodrigues, A. S., Pilgrim, J. D., Lamoreux, J. F., Hoffmann, M. & Brooks, T. M. 2006. The value of the IUCN Red List for conservation. Trends in ecology & evolution, 21, 71-76.

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