Myrrh Supply Chain Assessment

About the Project

Myrrh (Commiphora myrrha): Supply Chain Assessment, Harvesting Practices, Landscape Management, and Chemical Analysis seeks to address the lack of transparency and understanding of sustainability in the supply chain of myrrh resin, a valuable botanical widely used in herbal products, perfumery, and traditional medicine. Despite its significant market demand, the environmental and social impacts of commercial myrrh trade remain poorly understood. Threats such as over-tapping and grazing pressure have been well-documented in the closely related Boswellia trees also growing in the main myrrh production regions of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, but the status of myrrh has so far been unexplored. This gap in knowledge makes it challenging for companies to meet sustainable sourcing standards and support ethical trade, which in turn impacts rural communities dependent on myrrh production.
 
This three-year project combines field surveys, chemical analysis, and socio-economic assessments to build a comprehensive understanding of the myrrh supply chain and the ecological status of its primary populations in Ethiopia. The project team is conducting interviews with harvesters and traders to map the supply chain from local communities to the export market, as well as quantitative population surveys to assess myrrh tree health, regeneration, and threats across harvested and non-harvested regions. The study is also analyzing resin samples to identify potential chemical markers for geographic origin, possibly providing an innovative tool for verifying source authenticity and tracing the impact of different harvesting methods.
 
This project is crucial for the herbal products industry as it provides a pathway for companies to ethically source myrrh while safeguarding its long-term availability. The team will use the data generated in this project to generate a sustainable sourcing guide and educational materials for the industry, empowering companies to improve their supply chains, meet environmental and social standards, and support community welfare. This approach not only supports the ecological sustainability of myrrh populations but also helps foster fair trade practices that benefit local harvesters and strengthen the integrity of the herbal products market.

About the Project Team

Anjanette DeCarlo
Dr. Anjanette DeCarlo received her doctorate in Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Vermont. She is a Lecturer on supply chains in the Sustainable Innovation MBA at UVM and Anthropology at Saint Michaels College. As the former Chief Sustainability Scientist at the Aromatic Plant Research Center, she conducts primary anthropological and ecological field research and ecological supply chain analysis on aromatic and medicinal species. As founder of the Save Frankincense initiative she consults with the private sector on green and ethical supply webs and provides education and outreach for the public.  As a development expert, she has worked on post-conflict evaluations of natural assets, supply chains and environmental projects, cross culturally, in Somaliland, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Canada and China. Previously, Dr. DeCarlo was the Program Director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and with the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she worked on some of the first iterations of socially responsible business benchmarks and triple bottom line reporting. Dr. DeCarlo’s intensive work on frankincense is regularly highlighted in the media including CNN Inside Africa, the New York Times, and National Geographic, The Guardian, Vice News and more.

Stephen Johnson
Stephen Johnson is an interdisciplinary ecologist and technical advisor working on the conservation of wild plants. He collaborates with governments, NGOs, universities, and private companies to protect vulnerable plant species and to ensure that botanical value chains promote conservation, development, and fair livelihoods. His company, FairSource Botanicals, partners directly with harvesting communities to develop and manage ethical supply chains for wild plant products. Stephen has been working on botanical value chains since 2016, and has published more than a dozen peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and research reports on Burseraceae in the Horn of Africa. 

Abdinasir Abdikadir​
Abdinasir Abdikadir is a professional expert with a diverse range of expertise in the fields of Natural Resource and disaster risk management and sustainable development. From a young age, Abdinasir exhibited a keen interest in his surroundings and a deep appreciation for the natural world, which laid the foundation for his future endeavors. His passion for education led him embarked his first degree at Mekele University, where he studied Land Resource and Environmental Protection and pursued a second degree in Disaster Risk Management and Sustainable Development at Jigjiga University.

With a substantial career spanning over a decade, Abdinasir has held key positions, including Former Director of the Rangeland and Forestry Research Directorate at the Somali Region Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Research Institute. He has also served as a lecturer and senior researcher in the Natural Resource Management Department at Jigjiga University. During this time, he published research on topics such as frankincense trees, the endangered Cordeauxia Edulis (Yeheb Plant) and Prosopis Julifloral.  Currently, he is a senior researcher and technical consultant in natural resource management. His expertise encompasses resource management, conservation, environmental science, water resource management, and meteorology.

Please direct any questions about the AHPA ERB Foundation to ahpafoundation@ahpa.org.
​