EP232. Plants under threat from beauty

When people talk about sustainable beauty, they often assume that means natural beauty. But those two concepts are entirely different. Just because something is natural doesn't make it sustainable. And similarly, just because something is synthesized in a lab also doesn't make it sustainable. But one thing is clear, we create and use an awful lot of beauty products which require an awful lot of ingredients. And when those ingredients are harvested from nature and when they take a really, really long time to grow and regrow and we're using a lot of them, that means it's very easy for those plants to come under ecological pressure. Now, last week I interviewed Dr. Sally Goldstone again on the podcast, who was an amazing guest back in episode 75 when we looked at the sustainability of essential oils. In fact, people still talk to me about that episode because it was so hard hitting. So it was brilliant to have Sally back again to discuss the beauty industry's big biodiversity problem. And as I'm sure you gathered from that interview, the cosmetics industry needs to take fairly dramatic and immediate action to conserve the biodiversity that we have on Planet Earth. Because once it's gone, it's really gone. It's taken four and a half billion years of evolution for the huge diversity of plant and animal species on Planet Earth to be formed, and it's taking us only a matter of decades to wipe many of them out. So in today's episode, I want to take a look at two plant species and how they've been affected by the beauty industry both negatively and positively. Hi, it's Lorraine Dallmeyer, chartered environmentalist, biologist and CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school, Formula Botanica. I host the Green Beauty Conversations podcast and these are my green beauty opinions in which I challenge the beauty industry's terrible track record on sustainability and share my thoughts on how we can make the beauty sector a better and more sustainable place. If you want to be the first to hear all of my latest episodes and opinions, make sure you subscribe to this podcast. So the first plant I want to look at with you is frankincense. Now, frankincense is an amazing plant. It's beautiful. It smells heavenly. There's something very earthy, woody and a bit sweet about it. It's also one of my favorite essential oils and I particularly love its hydrosol. The problem is that many other people love it too. So frankincense gum resin is a globally traded forest product with estimates of it generating more than US$1 billion in value annually for its use in perfumery, medicines, incense, and obviously cosmetics. Now, context, this is important. There are 24 species of Boswellia, that's the genus for frankincense, in the world, at least that we know of. And they're spread across tropical Africa, Madagascar, the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen and Oman in particular, and India. Now, multiple different boswellias are used to create essential oils, but the main ones are Boswellia sacra, which people now agree is the same as Boswellia carteri. So you'll see those two names used interchangeably online and Boswellia serrata. And we'll come back to this in more detail in a minute. Now, once frankincense trees reach about 40 years in age, they are tapped for their resin. However, due to an increased demand, including from the cosmetics industry, some areas have seen too much tapping, which has left populations of trees vulnerable to pathogens and infestation by insects such as the longhorn beetle. And then further environmental pressures have seen populations of frankincense trees in certain regions produce no young trees. So in some places, the youngest trees are apparently over the age of 50, which doesn't sound very young to me. And some models are suggesting that frankincense production in some populations of these trees could halve in the coming decades. That's pretty serious. And none of this will come as a huge surprise to you, given that the beauty industry, but also the incense industry, consumes a lot of frankincense. It is, however, important to recognise here that not all commercially traded species of Boswellia are facing the same threats. So we can't place a blanket warning around frankincense because different populations of different trees face different issues. And luckily, there are conservation projects ongoing in multiple places, and governments are setting guidelines around tapping frequency in some places, which then would give the trees the opportunity to regenerate. This is a good thing. And cooperatives are forming too, which then hire local people and they can set the right incentives for harvesters based more on the quality of the resin rather than the amount that they harvest. It's also worth mentioning here, talking about Oman in the Middle east at this point, and in Oman, they reduced frankincense exports in the 90s to protect the indigenous trees, and they set up plantations in response to demand. So, to cut a long story short, things are happening, but it takes time for populations to regenerate. And when the cosmetics industry and other industries are placing significant pressure to consume and generate as much as possible, it is, of course, always hard to resist the cold, hard allure of cash. So when buying frankincense, I recommend that you look for suppliers who talk about the provenance of their ingredients. Do your research on the ones which your supplier stocks and find out whether there are any ecological issues with that particular species. Some Frankincense, some Boswellia species are struggling and they're listed on the so called Red List by the iucn, the world conservation body. You can visit their website, their Red List is available, you can even search it. It's super, super handy to use. We ultimately all have to play our part in looking after this majestic Frankincense tree all over the world. So do your research, that's my advice. The other plant I want to talk to you about is the Candea tree, which is a fascinating tale of a tree that could have been completely decimated by the beauty industry already, but has likely been given a stay of execution through its synthetic counterpart. Candeia is currently listed by the iucn, the world conservation body, on its red list, as stable at the population level and it's listed of least concern in terms of its conservation assessment. That doesn't of course mean that this couldn't change in the future and that the plant isn't currently under some ecological pressure. So again, let's provide some context. Firstly, what is the Candeia tree? Well, how do we use it in cosmetics? Well, have you ever heard of a cosmetic active called Alpha bisabolol? It's frequently used in beauty because it's known to have anti irritant, anti inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. And it's also used as a skin penetration enhancer in formulations. So it's associated with chamomile, which also contains the chemical compound bisabolol. And until the early 2000 and tens, most of our cosmetic alpha bisabolol came from natural sources. So the Candeia tree. Until a German ingredient supplier called Simrise, who controlled the majority of the Candeia market, switched to a synthetic alternative. That must have been a really big switch at the time. So for that reason, the majority of our alpha bisabolol is now either harvested from the Candeia tree, which grows in the open GR of Brazil, or it's synthetically produced. Let's talk about the natural version. When it's grown naturally, dysabolul is extracted from Candea oil, but it takes a lot of tree to produce a tiny, well, small amount of bisabolol. In fact, the numbers are pretty eye watering 1 cubic meter of timber from the Candeia tree. So that's 1 meter by 1 meter by 1 meter in dimensions. It's quite a lot of wood that yields seven kilograms of Alpha bisbolo. Now, let's extrapolate that for a minute using a research paper I read about the Candea industry. So apparently to produce 100 tons of Candeia oil, you have to harvest, get this, 14,000 tons of Candeia trees. Apparently that's about 850 hectares or 2,000 acres of Candeia timber. That is a lot of plant matter. I think we can all agree on that. Now, consider that it isn't cost effective to extract the oil until the tree is about 12 to 15 years old. And you can start to see how this tree could easily be decimated in literally a lifetime based on global demands. And given global market demands. This tree has also seen illegal logging in areas throughout Brazil. Indeed, I even found one article that discussed the Candeia mafia, which isn't surprising when some Companies estimate that 80% of Candea oil used to make Bisabolol is exported internationally. So local NGOs have been working to combat illegal logging of the Candeia tree and they've initiated reforestation programs with local farmers, as well as looking to set up cooperatives of small scale producers who hope to encourage others to to extract natural Alpha Bisoboll in a sustainable manner. There are obviously people on the ground doing great things, but again, here's an amazing ingredient that's used in lots of cosmetics where unsustainable and illegal harvesting is placing this population of trees under stress. Now, synthetic alternatives to Alpha Bisabolor may exist, but as we all know, many companies will seek out the natural versions instead, without necessarily considering any sustainability risks. So when searching for Alpha Visibol, I recommend you again, you learn where your ingredient has come from, how it was harvested and if it was naturally produced, whether the companies creating it possess any kind of sustainability certification or marks, or Forest Stewardship Council certification or something like that. Now, it's hard not to feel like a detective when you're trying to formulate cosmetics. I get that. But it's important to get this right by doing your due diligence, your homework, and determining where your ingredients have come from and how they were sourced. The good news is there are cooperatives. There are NGOs in many regions around the world who are doing their best. I even talked about some of them in these two examples. But they need your support. So my challenge to you for this week is if you can support some of the charities and cooperatives that are doing this great work, they need your help. Just as one example, Formula Botanica has supported Plant Life International as our main charity for the last 11 years, and there will be amazing charities and cooperatives and NGOs near you who are also doing great work, and I encourage you to support them wherever you can. Thank you for listening to my Green Beauty opinions. Remember to visit the Formula botanica website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you haven't subscribed yet to the Green Beauty Conversations podcast, please make sure you do so now in your favorite podcast app. Leave me a five star review if you enjoy the conversations I host and I'll be back soon with my next episode.