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AFCADDE, Ethiopia — <\/span>The key ingredient in some of the world’s most famous perfumes is myrrh, a tree resin from the Horn of Africa that experts say is pressed under pressure. historical drought<\/a>.<\/p>\n Endangered by lack of water and cut down by hungry animals, the trees that once formed dense forests in the Somali region are gone. Ethiopia<\/a> Local people say that they are in danger.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, researchers supported by the American Herbal Products Association visited a source of the prized resin, which travels from some of the most vulnerable places on Earth to global markets.<\/p>\n The goal: to ensure that those who harvest the resin receive more direct benefits rather than middlemen in an opaque supply chain.<\/p>\n Ethiopia is a major source of myrrh, which has been used in beauty, health, and religious practices since at least ancient Egypt. Traditional harvesting in the area has not changed, which helps protect the trees and produce the highest quality resin.<\/p>\n The hand-harvested nature of myrrh increases its price, but those who do the work see little profit. Collecting one kilogram (2.2 lb) of resin can fetch as little as $3.50 and as much as $10.<\/p>\n That’s a far cry from the prices of the perfumes it helps create, which are marketed by famous fashion brands like Tom Ford, Comme des Gar\u00e7ons and Jo Malone and sold for as high as $500 per bottle.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, curiosity about other potential uses of myrrh is growing with growing global interest in natural remedies. <\/p>\n At present, most of the myrrh from this part of eastern Ethiopia is bought by traders from neighboring Somalia. Ethiopia does not charge any taxes on goods.<\/p>\n Locals hope greater visibility will help them as the climate crisis threatens their way of life.<\/p>\n “They hoped that the direct market would enable them to achieve better prices and ensure sustainable livelihoods,” said Abdinasir Abdikadir Awes, a senior researcher at the Somali Regional Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Research Institute and a member of the research team.<\/p>\n The researchers were led by Anjanette DeCarlo, an expert in sustainable supply chains and resins at the University of Vermont, and Stephen Johnson, a resin expert and owner of FairSource Botanicals. They found that communities practice traditional logging by collecting resin from naturally occurring wounds on trees rather than deliberately cutting them down, making the trees more vulnerable to pests and diseases.<\/p>\n “Traditional practice is in balance and protecting the trees. It should be celebrated,” DeCarlo said.<\/p>\n But the drought worried the team. Annual rainfall has been declining for the past several years, interrupted by devastating floods in 2023.<\/p>\n The arid region has seen prolonged drought, but this has been historic. Experts have attributed this change to climate<\/a>.<\/p>\n Myrrh harvesting is in danger. While adult trees are generally healthy, they are producing less resin. And fewer young trees survive.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, many of the plants are uprooted by children who graze their livestock nearby, and the animals often eat the buds of the young trees,\u201d said Mohammed Osman Miyar, a local elder, adding, \u201cWe are deeply concerned about the declining population of myrrh trees.\u201d<\/p>\n Without proper rainfall, other young trees are also likely to die. DeCarlo worried that eventually even the adult trees would die.<\/p>\n The villagers spend their days carrying water for themselves and their animals. The herders cross 200 kilometers of dry, cracked earth to reach the village of Sankotor, where there is a rare well full of water.<\/p>\n Seeing the crowd of hundreds of animals around the well, local head Ali Mohammed said, “The guests first give water to the animals, then to the villagers.”<\/p>\n But not everyone has livestock to survive. The poorest residents depend entirely on the resin of trees such as myrrh for their survival.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. find api standards<\/a> A list of philanthropies to work with, supporters and funded coverage areas ap.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AFCADDE, Ethiopia — The key ingredient in some of the world’s most famous perfumes is myrrh, a tree resin from the Horn of Africa that experts say is pressed under pressure. historical drought. Endangered by lack of water and cut down by hungry animals, the trees that once formed dense forests in the Somali region<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[2571,8143,1223,469,1755,19546,1689,3014,8184],"class_list":["post-56307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-news","tag-africas","tag-drought","tag-income","tag-key","tag-luxury","tag-myrrh","tag-perfume","tag-threatens","tag-tree"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56309,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56307\/revisions\/56309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}