No living tree is cut.
My name is Piv and I am happy to tell you that everyone buying and using this palo santo can do so with a clear conscience knowing that the product in hand is ethically sourced and sustainably forested from a local family-owned land on the Northern coastal hights of Ecuador.
‘Sustainably forested’ means that no living tree is cut and the foresting proces is done according to the tradition of collecting dead or fallen branches off the forest bed.
I have a background in social work and eco-therapy. I try to implement a feminist and activist perspective on everything I do - knowing that everything is intersected and connected. Knowing that my position and privileges can be used to the benifit of a greater good I aim to use proceeds of this business to co-raise funds to local Ecuadorian eco-activists that are daily battling giant cooporations from taking down prescious forests for agriculture.
Every piece is unique
This wood is delivered to me in logs which I then chop into smaller sticks with axe and other manuel tools. Then I hand-stamp the sticks with the small adorable cresent moon. Finally I sort the sticks in different size categories ready to be delivered to retailers around Denmark and Europe.
I love doing this craft which can feel almost meditative to me. I do believe that the personal presence that is put into handmade crafts carry the non industrial feeling with it.
Many have said that this palo santo is much more fragrant than the mass produced wood they used to buy and I attribute that to the fact that to the long drying process which thoroughly allows the oils to manifest plus short time from being processed to getting to the store.
Just one link between me and the farm in Ecuador.
I get around 60 kilos of wood each year from a European/Ecuadorian importer called Laura. She trades directly with the farm in Ecuador. The fewer links between consumer and the farmer the better as it allows the farmer to keep his prices at a favorable rate as fewer links need to make a profit. The cheaper your product the less the producer has earned.
Is palo santo endagered?
Palo Santo aka “Bursera Graveolens”, grows in many countries across the americas; Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Honduras, Colombia and Galápagos. It is by no means considered ‘rare’.
Over the past years there has been a growing focus on and confusion about whether or not palo santo is going extinct and whether it’s an ethical purchase. The confusion around this is quite understandable as there are in fact two spiecies of wood under the popular term ‘Palo Santo’; Bursera Graveolen and Bulnesia Sarmientoi.
Unfortunatly it’s correct that the spicies called Bulnesia Sarmientoi IS in fact endagered. It grows in Agentina, Bolivia and Paraguay and is a hard wood that is used for making furniture which its easy to assess is a HUGE business and unfortunately those countries have not been able to secure regualtions of these forests. Please note that this is also the type of ‘palo santo’ that is commonly used in conventional insence sticks so be aware of this.
The other type of palo santo - Bursera Graveolens which is the one I work with is a soft wood and is NOT ENDAGERED or even close. The International Union for Conversation of Nature regularly assess a huge amount of different plant and tree spicies and the lastest assessment of Bursera Graveolen from 2019 is that 'Of Least Concern'.
Sustainably forested palo santo means that no living tree is cut and the dead, fallen branches are collected from the forest bed then storaged to dry for 4-10 years before its cut into logs or sticks.
Now obviously Im still just a rookie knowledge wise and I advise you to check out these guys for more in depth information as they’ve been working with bursera graveolens and the local ecuadorians for decades: https://sacredwoodessence.com/
