Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey guys, I'm Mick Crifferook and this is What In The World from the BBC World Service. I have a question for you.
What's the first thing that comes to mind when I say shea butter? Is it your hair products? Maybe your hand cream? Well, if you didn't know, shea butter is a rich, silky fat extracted from the nuts of trees in West and East Africa. And it can be found in lots of different stuff. And it's big business too. So by 2031, the global cosmetic shea butter market is expected to reach 2.1 billion dollars.
And that's in part due to the rising trend of people looking for more products with natural ingredients. But the production of these products could be under threat. In this episode, we're going to find out why. ♪
Okay, so let's find out a bit more about all of this. I'm joined by BBC Africa journalist Anne Okumu. Hey Anne, how are you? Hey, I'm fine thanks, how are you? Not too bad. Alright, okay, so shea butter. I see it on everything. A lot of my cosmetics have it as an ingredient on the list. I don't know if it's because I'm a fan of shea butter.
What exactly is it though? Shea butter is a very, it's a prestigious cream that we use on this side of the continent. It's some sort of rich cream fat which is produced from the shea nuts, which comes from the shea tree. It's very creamy and very slimy when you put it to the hand. It melts so softly and it's...
Golden and yellowish in colours. That's why many people refer to it as the women's gold. And it's used mostly in food, for cooking. It's used for cosmetic. It's used for skin treatment and ingredients for soap. So it's a prestigious cream butter across the African continent. Sounds beautiful. Women's gold. I love that. Do you use it?
Yes, I do use shea butter. I use it especially for skincare and I also use it for my hair, my hair treatment weekly. When it comes to shea butter, where exactly does it come from? Shea butter comes from the, they call it the shea belt.
stretches from East Africa to West Africa, covering some sections of Central Africa. So it grows across, I think, about 21 countries. And there's this competition that happens between the shea butter from the West and the shea butter from the East, which one is the most
potent one, which is the most valuable one. So it's produced in countries like Uganda, in Senegal, in Togo, Nigeria and Ghana. So it's a very valuable product, a very valuable beauty product that comes from the sub-Saharan region along the Shia belt from East to West Africa. And I guess there is a more serious side of this, sadly, now as well. It's under threat, right? Just tell us a bit more about that.
Yes. So, we, shea butter is under threat, the butter trade itself. We visited a community in northern Uganda called Koboko, where we were told the human activity is putting the shea butter trade under threat because people are cutting down the tree for charcoal use. They say the shea tree produces better quality charcoal, which burns brightly and
more strongly. And they also say it burns for a longer period of time compared to other trees. And also it's cheaper. So people, especially the men, are the ones who are cutting down these trees in Koboko Forest, which before had a very huge, it was vast in size and the number of shared trees. But right now, when we went there last month, the number of trees were very scarce. We saw people driving out of the forest with sacks and sacks of
of charcoal. We could see like after every 10 meters, there was a bicycle or a motorbike getting out of the forest carrying stacks of charcoal. So the people, especially the women traders in Koboko are complaining that it's going to affect their business in future because as of now, they're producing very little butter because they take so long to grow. And the ones that have grown by now have been cut down for charcoal trade. So the business is under threat, the livelihood is under threat, and the
the shear belt butter trade is also under threat. So human activity is having a bit of an impact. So is there any connection to climate change? The connection to the decline of shear trees and the shear butter trade to climate change is enormous because men are cutting down the trees because the farming activity has been impacted because of drought and fading rains.
and also the source of livelihood has been impacted. So they're looking for something different, something easy, and something that's very readily available for them, which now is the Shia tree. So in a bid to make ends meet, they cut down the Shia tree to produce charcoal. So
There's a connection between the shear decline and climate change because also we were told, we spoke to the guy who's in charge of sensitizations of the community on the conservation of shear trees. The other issue they have was the flowering of shear tree is taking longer than it used to because he said, for example, it used to flower around March, between March and April. Now it takes longer up to December. It takes longer for the tree to flower. So it's producing slowly. So there's a
between the climate itself, which is directly affecting the tree, and climate change which is affecting people and their livelihoods who are now resorting to cutting down trees to make ends meet.
And among the people you were speaking to, did you get that sense of worry that they wanted maybe the government to be doing more? Yes, there's a worry among people, especially the women. In the Koboko community, women are the main breadwinners of their families because of the sheer barter trade, which is very huge.
So the women are complaining that they are not producing more shea butter. So they're not selling enough shea butter. Their kids are not going to school. So they're calling on the government. And also, in fact, they're also calling on NGOs and the people who are in the beauty industry who depend on the shea butter to join forces so they can help in sensitizing people and also educate people on the need to conserve the shea tree because the number at which, the rate at which it's declining
It's fast and it's huge and it's affecting them at the moment.
It sounds like there's that pressure being put on the government, but what are they saying about all of this? For the government, on their side, they had issued an order to stop the cutting down of trees in Koboko Forest because it is estimated that Uganda is losing 100,000 hectares of forest cover annually, and that's including a significant portion of shear trees. So in as much as the government has issued an order
a notice or a warning to help to stop the cutting down of shared trees. It's difficult now to implement this. Nobody is following up to see if this is being done. I think one of the problems is the distance between the capital and where Koboko is. Koboko is far
outside the border between Congo and South Sudan. So before people, there's no enforcement, government officials going to that area to see who's cutting the trees, what they can do if there are arrests being made to help solve that. Implementation is very difficult. And the other issue they brought up was the urbanization. Because of an urbanization, they're trying to expand the Koboko district. Trees are being cut down, including the sheer trees, so that they can build cities, they can build...
petrol stations, they can build towns or other amenities. So it's a mix of so many things happening, but the government is struggling so much to implement its rule that was given out to help solve this issue of cutting down of shear trees.
And just finally, Anne, did you hear about any local initiatives which are trying to help too? Yes, we spoke to one organization that produces the Nyalotika Shear Butter. It's a famous shear butter in Uganda. And I think one of the key activities they're doing now, apart from just moving from door to door, sensitizing people not to cut down trees, they are producing shear seedlings for people to replant trees.
So they have like a very huge factory, which they produce shear seedlings and then they gather people from the community. I think it's on a monthly basis. And then they go and replant. I think for them, it's more of action than talking. So they're trying to make sure there's, in as much as people are talking about conserving shear trees, they are doing something to make sure the number, while people are cutting, they are replenishing and they're continuing to plant more. So there's a balance also.
of both. Thank you so much for coming on and explaining all of that to us, Anne. Thank you so much. And that's it for today. Thank you for listening. I'm Itkra Farouk and this is What's in the World from the BBC World Service.