Essential Oils from the Alpine Areas of the Himalayas

by Appropriate Technology International

Partners:

Appropriate Technology International (ATI) Asian Network for Small-scale Agricultural Bioresources (ANSAB) The Humla Conservation and Development Association (HCDA)

1997 Update

On the whole, 1997 has been a time solidifying the gains made in previous years and fine-tuning the operation of both the factories and the community forest handover process.

The major activities that occurred during this period were as follows:

Humla Oil Pvt. Ltd. continued production of essential oils from jatamansi, juniper, and sagunawaal at both factories, Kurilla and Rodikot, until the end of the summer season. After that, production shut down and efforts switched to maintenance of the facilities until the fall season recommenced at the end of September. Humla Oil also continued to provide technical support on processing and marketing to the new distillation plant in Jumla.

Community forest handover activities accelerated as communities became aware of the benefits -- direct royalty payments on materials harvested from registered community forests. The Humla Conservation and Development Association added another forester to their team in Humla to assist in the handover process. This process is ongoing now in eight Village Development Committees in Humla and will continue into the future.

Biological monitoring teams completed their inventory and regeneration activities in the Humla project area during the summer of 1997. This included mapping of resources in conjunction with local community members and continued work on the regeneration aspects of the commercially utilized plant species found.

Although accessing Indian buyers was initially problematic because Humla was unknown to them, additional market investigations were conducted in India. The majority of the jatamansi oil continues to move into the Indian market with smaller quantities going to Europe and the distributor in North America.

In October 1996, local project manager Tsewang Lama participated in the United States Natural Products Expo where Humla Oils products were presented. He also took part in a presentation to the Expo regarding the issues of sourcing natural materials from community groups. This was a learning as well as marketing experience for the Humla Oil Company and Tsewang developed several leads that are being followed up on. Plans are being made to attend the 1997 Expo.

Basic literacy classes were completed in the project area and the post literacy conservation material was finalized and sent for printing. Distribution in Humla will occur later this year.

Successes and Challenges

"OK...So What?"

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