S(m)elling the ‘Wild’: The Political Ecology of Arboreal Essential Oils and the Making of Olfactory Resources

• Applicants: Privatdozent Dr. Clemens Greiner; Eric Kioko, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 512387449

Global demand for natural cosmetics and organic care products has led to increasing commodification of numerous ecological niche species. This project focuses on the sourcing of arboreal essential oils, which are an important ingredient mainly due to their fragrant properties. Growing demand increases pressure on these wild, rare, and often endangered resources, and also gives rise to calls for more conservation efforts. This leads to the search for alternatives to wild collections, such as plantation cultivation or attempts at biochemical development of near-natural or nature-identical alternatives. This project sets out to explore these processes from two angles. One the one hand, it explores the political ecology of arboreal essential oils, and, on the other hand, it examines the substitutability of wild for bioengineered ingredients. The thus project explores the materiality and making of olfactory value chains in Africa and Europe, and – by using approaches from sensory ethnography and immersing in the worlds of olfactory experts – the creation and valuation of smell, its associative relations with wilderness, and the consequences of sensory difference on sourcing practices in Kenya, Namibia and South Africa. More broadly, the project explores how things become resources, and raises critical questions about the commercial use of rare natural products in times of global environmental change and neoliberal conservation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: South Africa
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Andries du Toit, Ph.D.