Organic essential oil for protecting the rainforest

Peasants from Iavomanitra and surrounding villages process Ravensara and Geranium leaves in their two local distilleries equipped by WWF.

Slash-and-burn, illegal logging of precious woods and illegal gold mining are the main threats to the rainforest forest corridor of Fandriana Vondrozo Midongy. To tackle them and to protect the forest, while increasing their incomes, communities managing these forests have developed alternative economic activities. And with determination, some have become a great success!

This is the case of the essential oil production started a decade ago in the small village of Iavomanitra. .Farmers from Iavomanitra and surrounding villages process Ravensara and Geranium leaves in their two local distilleries that are equipped by WWF.

To increase their strength, producers had grouped into the cooperative "Maintsomanitra" (green and fragrant in English), which has signed a contract with the company AROMANIA in Ambositra. Before it is offered for sale in different forms, the oil is processed and packaged. Today, the products of Iavomanitra communities are certified "organic" by the certification body Ecocert *.

"The essential oil gives us more sustainable income than gold mining and it does not destroy the forest. We have built nurseries for essential oils and trees. Nobody is illegaly exploiting the rainforest" explains Rakotonirina Donné, general secretary of the cooperative.

* Ecocert: A French international certification body for "ecological and biological cosmetics". (Www.ecocert.com)