As we reflect upon what the rituals and stories of the holidays mean to us personally, I want to remind us that nearly every element of them has environmental dimensions that are often hidden from sight.
A case in point is our fascination with the three wise men (probably from what is now northwestern India) who brought frankincense and myrrh to Bethlehem. As many times as we have all heard that story, how many of us have realized that frankincense has become so endangered that it may be placed on IUCN ‘s Red List and banned from international trade/ After millennia of it being one of the most highly regarded sacred plants in the world, the last two decades of interest in its pharmacological value for reducing inflammation and diseases of oxidative stress have imperiled more populations than ever before.
The photo above shows an old frankincense plant damaged by both overharvesting and by overgrazing by camels. There is illegal clandestine harvesting reported in some countries, but in others -like Oman- poor immigrant or refugee harvesters unfamiliar with the plant’s growth rate and vulnerability literally butcher the incense plants even when they have legal permits.
So a sacred plant that has been in extra-local trade for upwards of 5000 years is now being imperiled as a global commodity in capsulized herb trade.
Over the next few months, I will be suggesting solutions to such dilemmas that we are exploring through the Sacred Plant Biocultural Recovery Initiative. Stay tuned.