6 COMMIPHORA WILDII RESIN PROJECT > THE REASON FOR RESIN
In remote north-western Namibia in the Kunene Region, the IRDNC (Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation) has initiated the Commiphora wildii project, whereby local people harvest the golden resin that falls to the ground from these small resilient trees, also referred to as kanniedood, an Afrikaans words meaning ‘cannot die’.
The resin has been used as a traditional Himba perfume for generations. The trees produce the resin in the dry season and the Himba harvest it from October until the onset of the main rains, usually in February. Collecting the gum from the ground around the trees involves local people from five conservancies in the region. Most of the resin is sent to Europe to be used as a secret ingredient in French perfume, with the balance going to Australia and South Africa.
In November 2004, the IRDNC began investigating the commiphora perfume plants used by the Himba people in the region. This was followed with vegetation mapping, surveys and trial harvests, identifying the species Commiphora wildii, called omumbiri in the Himba language, as the most important resin-producing perfume plant used by Himba women. The objective was to ensure that the resin would be harvested sustainably; that only resin secreted naturally from the tree is collected; and that the trees are monitored after the harvest to check that they have not been damaged in the process. During the 2006/2007 harvest season, it was estimated that the approximate production of resin every year was 50 tons in the five conservancies (Puros, Orupembe, Marienfluss, Sanitatas and Okondjombo) involved in the project.
The first commercial resin harvest was carried out in October 2007. Conservancy members were interviewed and met in subsequent months to address issues that required attention before the next harvest. Harvesting had to be stopped early in some of the conservancies during the second commercial harvest of omumbiri in 2008/2009 as a result of early rains. In some of the areas harvesters need to walk as far as 20 km from their villages to collect the resin.
All harvesters are required to register, be conservancy members and abide by the harvesting rules. The harvesters averaged 250 members in the first two harvests. At US$10 per kilogram of resin, the money earned provides a much-needed income in these rural areas. With each of the female harvesters having several dependants, the benefits from the omumbiri harvesting are far-reaching. The resin is harvested during the driest months of the year when animals are thin and producing minimal milk, and when water sources are drying up. Most of the money earned is used immediately for food to tide the harvesters and their families over the dry, hot period until the summer rains.
The golden globules of amber resin from these distinctive, diminutive trees are literally gold in this arid region of subsistence farming where the chances of earning additional income are minimal. Harvesting the aromatic Himba perfume essence, with no detrimental consequences to the environment, gives the conservancies in this remote north-western part of the country an unexpected and fruitful opportunity, casting some doubt on the veracity of the old truism that money doesn’t grow on trees.
(Information sourced from the Report on Second Commercial Harvest of Commiphora wildii Resin in Marienfluss, Sanitatas, Okondjombo, Puros and Orupembe Conservancies, by Karen Nott.)
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