The myrrh resin that makes its way into luxury perfumes and has supported livelihoods in Ethiopia’s Somali region is facing a growing threat from drought, researchers said after visiting a source area earlier this year. The team described an arid landscape where traditional resin collection is practiced from trees’ naturally occurring wounds, even as the drought has reduced resin output and left fewer young trees surviving. Experts also pointed to livestock activity and the failing rains as additional pressures on the myrrh population.
The visits focused on how myrrh reaches global markets and on whether harvesters can secure more direct profits instead of relying on middlemen along an “opaque supply chain,” the report said. The researchers were supported by the American Herbal Products Association, a trade group, and Born Global, a nonprofit. They also said Ethiopia is a major source of myrrh and that the resin has long been used for beauty, health and religious practices.
Myrrh’s harvesting method is largely tied to tradition in the Somali region, where collectors gather resin from wounds on the trees rather than making intentional cuts, the researchers reported. They said that approach helps protect the trees and produces higher-quality resin. The report said the resin’s hand-harvested character is part of what raises the price, yet the people doing the work see relatively little of the profit—collecting a kilogram of resin can bring as little as $3.50 and as much as $10, compared with the higher prices perfume brands charge for products that incorporate myrrh.
Researchers and local residents connected the current stress on myrrh trees to multiple environmental pressures, including a multi-year period in which annual rains have been failing. They said drought conditions in the arid region have been “historic,” and that 2023 brought devastating flooding that interrupted the rainfall. While local herding and harvesting communities have experienced droughts before, the team said this episode has moved beyond past norms, with adult trees producing less resin and fewer young trees surviving.
The report included a concern about how young trees are treated and protected in grazing areas. Mohamed Osman Miyir, a local elder, said many seedlings are uprooted by children who graze livestock nearby, and that animals often eat the buds of the young trees. Miyir added that residents are “deeply worried about the declining population of myrrh trees,” while another researcher said without proper rain other young trees are likely to fail.
Even as adults remain generally healthy, the team said the drought has left the resin producers with fewer resources to sustain the next generation of trees. The researchers said they worry that if rainfall patterns do not recover, adult trees could also die over time. They also linked the decline to both the lack of water and the pressures created by livestock grazing close to seedlings.
Beyond the ecological threat, the report described how drought has reshaped daily routines in the harvesting area. Villagers in search of water spend their days hauling it for themselves and for livestock, and herders travel across parched, cracked earth as far as 200 kilometers (125 miles) to reach Sanqotor village, where there is a rare well. Ali Mohamed, a local headman, said, “Guests water animals first, then the villagers,” describing hundreds of animals crowding around the well.
The researchers said the resin trade remains a lifeline, with the poorest residents relying solely on tree resin such as myrrh for survival. They also said most myrrh from eastern Ethiopia is purchased by traders from neighboring Somalia, and that Ethiopia collects no taxes on the goods. In that context, researchers said they hoped more visibility into the supply chain and a direct market would allow harvesters to secure better prices and sustain livelihoods amid climate stress.
“We [the research team] expressed hope that a direct market would enable them to secure better prices, ensuring sustainable livelihoods,” said Abdinasir Abdikadir Aweys, a senior researcher with the Somali Regional Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Research Institute and a member of the team. The team’s research leadership included Anjanette DeCarlo, an expert on sustainable supply chains and resins at the University of Vermont, and Stephen Johnson, a resin expert and owner of FairSource Botanicals. DeCarlo said in the report that “Traditional practice is in balance and protects trees. It should be celebrated,” while drought-driven conditions are still threatening the future of the resin source that underpins the region’s economy.