Ok, so I must admit that until a couple of weeks ago I really had no idea there was such an issue surrounding some essential oils - perhaps down to my misguided optimism assuming that all holistic supplies are harvested ethically.
But not so!
Sandalwood oil (aka Santalum album, or S.album), in particular, has a HUGE controversy surrounding its use at the moment - the trees are basically under threat of extinction, it's that bad!
I was totally shocked to learn this - I think it's a pretty common misconception that if it's good for you, there's no harm done, but for me this has clearly been an example of assumption being the mother of all f**k-ups!
So anyway, rather than go into minute detail on the issue, I'll just sum it up - due to immense overharvesting of the sandalwood tree (which has to be mature, so essentially 30+ years old, to provide enough "product") it has caused the tree itself to come under threat of extinction and also desecrated surrounding land, forests, etc. And human lives have been at stake, due to smuggling and everything else that's gone on illegally.
So who's to blame? Well, pretty much everyone. It's a well-known ingredient in perfumes, due to its sex appeal-like qualities (it has a deep, woody, long-lasting base note, with a hint of urine that brings that all-important "human element" that makes scents so appealing to us), but a lot of aromatherapists also swear by it, and even companies such as Lush (who like to boast about their ethical approach to buying and raising eco issues) use it in a lot of their products....in fact, there is a video on youtube where Lush admit to using over a ton of sandalwood oil per year (I assume that's just in the UK?) harvested from various sources - and this was given to me as a link direct from the Green Team at Lush when I enquired about their sourcing and use of sandalwood!
There are currently arguments going on about the sustainability of sandalwood - with some arguing that the governments in India and Indonesia are strictly controlling the felling and harvesting rate of the tree therefore there's "no real problem". There is also a new plantation exercise being carried out in Australia (the species there is being called Santalum spicatum, or S.spicatum), which started several years ago - but some experts, particularly Chrissie Wildwood, have pointed out that it will take 30-50 years before these trees can actually be harvested to get a viable amount of oil from them......and I have to wonder, will there be any trees left in the world by the time that happens?
For anyone interested in finding out more, here are some links worth checking out:
Cropwatch also cover other endangered species - you can see the list here.
Chrissie Wildwood did have a website - it looks like it's disappeared for now - but there is an article of hers worth looking out for (it was featured in the In Essence magazine of summer 2006 - vol. 5 no. 1) called "Dealing with Eco-Denial". I took at pretty personally as I was reading it - it does come across quite brutally, she doesn't mince her words - but now that it's had time to sink in I've thought "hang on a minute....if something is at this much risk, surely people can't be blatantly ignoring the issue?" so I started looking around. And some might think it's unfair of me to pick out a company like Lush to use as an example, but I thought if any company is likely to publish stuff on the issue, it's them. And sure enough they do - they have a whole page dedicated to the issues of sandalwood - but I was pretty shocked to realise that even although they are aware of the issues, they still use it in many of their products.....not really what you expect from an eco-aware company eh?! And something I noticed on their page was a lack of information on where they currently source their sandalwood from, which prompted me to email and ask them that specific question....and all I've had in response so far is a link to 2 of their youtube videos!
In some ways, I think it's perhaps even worse that companies that portray themselves as eco-friendly etc do things like this - because you tend to put your trust in them and assume they're Doing The Right Thing. I'm of course gutted now, cos my bathroom is like a Lush takeaway at the moment - I'm just thankful that none of the products I use list sandalwood as an ingredient (and yea, it did take me a while to look at them all)!
I also now feel guilty for the 2mls sandalwood oil I bought as preparation for the start of this semester, but at least now I know about the issue, I won't be buying any more...
I know it might be small potatoes when you compare it to the issues of certain animals currently facing extinction (which is just..... well, words really fail me to see so much wildlife disappearing and yet here we still sit and watch) but everything has a knock-on effect and maybe if people can change their attitude on the small things, it can snowball.
But not so!
Sandalwood oil (aka Santalum album, or S.album), in particular, has a HUGE controversy surrounding its use at the moment - the trees are basically under threat of extinction, it's that bad!
I was totally shocked to learn this - I think it's a pretty common misconception that if it's good for you, there's no harm done, but for me this has clearly been an example of assumption being the mother of all f**k-ups!
So anyway, rather than go into minute detail on the issue, I'll just sum it up - due to immense overharvesting of the sandalwood tree (which has to be mature, so essentially 30+ years old, to provide enough "product") it has caused the tree itself to come under threat of extinction and also desecrated surrounding land, forests, etc. And human lives have been at stake, due to smuggling and everything else that's gone on illegally.
So who's to blame? Well, pretty much everyone. It's a well-known ingredient in perfumes, due to its sex appeal-like qualities (it has a deep, woody, long-lasting base note, with a hint of urine that brings that all-important "human element" that makes scents so appealing to us), but a lot of aromatherapists also swear by it, and even companies such as Lush (who like to boast about their ethical approach to buying and raising eco issues) use it in a lot of their products....in fact, there is a video on youtube where Lush admit to using over a ton of sandalwood oil per year (I assume that's just in the UK?) harvested from various sources - and this was given to me as a link direct from the Green Team at Lush when I enquired about their sourcing and use of sandalwood!
There are currently arguments going on about the sustainability of sandalwood - with some arguing that the governments in India and Indonesia are strictly controlling the felling and harvesting rate of the tree therefore there's "no real problem". There is also a new plantation exercise being carried out in Australia (the species there is being called Santalum spicatum, or S.spicatum), which started several years ago - but some experts, particularly Chrissie Wildwood, have pointed out that it will take 30-50 years before these trees can actually be harvested to get a viable amount of oil from them......and I have to wonder, will there be any trees left in the world by the time that happens?
For anyone interested in finding out more, here are some links worth checking out:
Cropwatch also cover other endangered species - you can see the list here.
Chrissie Wildwood did have a website - it looks like it's disappeared for now - but there is an article of hers worth looking out for (it was featured in the In Essence magazine of summer 2006 - vol. 5 no. 1) called "Dealing with Eco-Denial". I took at pretty personally as I was reading it - it does come across quite brutally, she doesn't mince her words - but now that it's had time to sink in I've thought "hang on a minute....if something is at this much risk, surely people can't be blatantly ignoring the issue?" so I started looking around. And some might think it's unfair of me to pick out a company like Lush to use as an example, but I thought if any company is likely to publish stuff on the issue, it's them. And sure enough they do - they have a whole page dedicated to the issues of sandalwood - but I was pretty shocked to realise that even although they are aware of the issues, they still use it in many of their products.....not really what you expect from an eco-aware company eh?! And something I noticed on their page was a lack of information on where they currently source their sandalwood from, which prompted me to email and ask them that specific question....and all I've had in response so far is a link to 2 of their youtube videos!
In some ways, I think it's perhaps even worse that companies that portray themselves as eco-friendly etc do things like this - because you tend to put your trust in them and assume they're Doing The Right Thing. I'm of course gutted now, cos my bathroom is like a Lush takeaway at the moment - I'm just thankful that none of the products I use list sandalwood as an ingredient (and yea, it did take me a while to look at them all)!
I also now feel guilty for the 2mls sandalwood oil I bought as preparation for the start of this semester, but at least now I know about the issue, I won't be buying any more...
I know it might be small potatoes when you compare it to the issues of certain animals currently facing extinction (which is just..... well, words really fail me to see so much wildlife disappearing and yet here we still sit and watch) but everything has a knock-on effect and maybe if people can change their attitude on the small things, it can snowball.
UPDATE: I've just had a response from the Head Perfumer at Lush on my queries over their use of sandalwood - not really an answer as such, but he does go into more detail on their sourcing. Thinking I'll prob email back and ask again what it is about sandalwood that they feel is so irreplaceable as they're maintaining the line that they don't want to go down the route of "synthetic" replacements....but any qualified aromatherapist knows that essential oils have physiological & psychological properties and these, along with the reaction of the client to the smell, are what determines a good blend. It's just curious that if Lush are saying it's so good and nothing compares, why are they using it in some and not ALL of their products??
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