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Progress in breaking the link between narcotics crime and rainforest loss in Cambodia
One of the least publicized causes of rainforest destruction in recent years has been the production of amphetamine-type stimulants, including methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy. An important precursor of MDMA is safrole oil, refined from sassafras oil from the lower trunk and roots of various trees, including the Lauraceae genera Ocotea and Cinnamomum .
In the densely forested Cardamom Mountains, south-west Cambodia, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) staff observed a dramatic escalation in sassafras oil production in 2004, soon after stricter controls had been placed on this industry in neighbouring Vietnam. Sassafras is illegally refined in Cambodia from the uncommon mreah prew phnom tree, tentatively identified by local biologists as the Data Deficient Cinnamomum parthenoxylon . The trees are felled and their roots cut into pieces and boiled in huge cauldrons over wood fires for 5-8 days. The distillation process consumes an enormous quantity of other trees for fuel, and the waste is typically discarded into streams, causing severe pollution. It takes an estimated 100 kg of oil-rich material to produce 1 kg of safrole.
The oil is carried out of the forest in 35 l containers by local labourers, earning a monthly wage of c. USD 25, before being smuggled to Vietnam, China or Thailand, where it fetches upwards of USD 1,725 per litre according to research by the FFI team in Cambodia. In 2005 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime sent a mission to Cambodia to investigate the source of a large quantity of oil found in Vietnam. They reported that international efforts to track and control the production of ecstasy were complicated by the fact that safrole has other, legitimate uses, including the production of degreasants, tooth-paste and paints. The felling and processing of mreah prew phnom , however, is unequivocally illegal in Cambodia.
Besides mreah prew phnom the Cardamom Mountains support exceptionally rich biodiversity, with many endemic animals and plants and > 60 globally threatened species. Nearly 30,000 people live in and around the mountains, including indigenous forest-based minorities. Considerable efforts have been made to close the illegal distilleries that threaten these forests and hence these communities. In...