Protecting the sacred forests of Benin | Environment | All topics from climate change to conservation | DW | 30.09.2021

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Environment

Protecting the sacred forests of Benin

For some in Benin, the forests are sacred and they provide a special connection with colobus monkeys, a connection that stretches back centuries to the slave trade. Research for this story was funded by the European Journalism Centre through a European Development Journalism Grant awarded to Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and FAZ.net.

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Ylang ylang flowers in the hand of Nafihati Mahamoud as she helps her mother, Rasoulé Mbaraka, harvest ylang ylang flowers from a grove of the trees near the home Mbaraka shares with her husband, Saïd Bacar, near Moya on the island of Anjouan in the Comoros. Mbaraka and Bacar own an artisanal ylang ylang oil distillery. Bacar estimates his age at 82; Mbaraka is 71. After having invested in a more wood-efficient distillery a few years ago they'd hoped that ylang ylang oil would see them through their old age. However, a crash in the price of ylang ylang oil means the couple are struggling. The highly-scented oil from ylang ylang flowers is used in perfumes by manufacturers such as Chanel, Dior and Guerlain, as well as in a range of other cosmetic, aromatherapy and household products. To produce the oil, large quantities of flowers (often 100kg at a time) are heated in water and the distillate condensed and collected. The oil floats to the top and is drained off. The highest quality oil is produced within the first 1 - 2 hours of distillation, with successively poorer grades produced in sequence over a subsequent 6 - 18 hours of continuous heating. Unimproved furnaces may consume a tonne of wood to produce 3 - 4kg of oil. The Comoros has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world and ylang ylang oil production is estimated to be responsible for 10 - 15 percent of this.

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