This article explores the contradictions that have emerged along the commod- ity chain of the endangered medicinal tree Prunus africana in Madagascar.
Subverting Regulatory Protection of ‘Natural Commodities’: The Prunus Africana in Madagascar
Benjamin Neimark ABSTRACT This article explores the contradictions that have emerged along the commodity chain of the endangered medicinal tree Prunus africana in Madagascar. The study provides a unique opportunity to build on theories of access, highlighting in particular the themes of social relations, culture and power in mediating access to natural resources and benefits that derive from commercialization. Commodity chain analysis is employed to illustrate that property rights, based solely on formal rights, legal claims or customary rights to ‘natural commodities’ are insufficient to measure who is able to gain and maintain access to the species. The results show that power, regulation and exclusion have a much greater impact on who is able to tap into the benefits of P. africana commercialization. This article illustrates how extraction firms in Madagascar have over the years finessed their way, through ‘green conditionalities’ or conservation concessions, into continued extraction of P. africana — all in the face of widespread regulation.
CONTROLLING ACCESS TO NATURAL COMMODITIES
Community-based natural resource management schemes, once the cornerstone of environment and development programmes worldwide, are now awash with initiatives prefaced upon good governance and formal property rights. Recently, however, scholars have begun to question the focus of development organizations and institutions on formal property rights to better understand the access dynamics coalescing around natural resource extraction (Berry, 2009; Broegaard, 2009; Lund, 2006; Ribot, 2009). Formal property rights are based primarily on Locke’s theory of natural law which is generally characterized as liberal and individualistic. According to Locke, property (mainly land) is derived by mixing labour with nature and is justified through one’s advances or improvements (Locke, 1947 [1689]). I am deeply grateful for the support and careful editing skills of Richard Schroeder, who struck the important balance of encouragement and intellectual space for me to complete this work. The article has been improved by suggestions on earlier drafts from Jim Simon, David Hughes and Kevin St. Martin, and constructive comments from three anonymous referees. I would like to express gratitude to the Fulbright International Institute of Education and the New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products programme at Rutgers University for their financial support of this project. C 2010 International Institute of Social Studies. Development and Change 41(5): 929–954. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA
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This premise, which laid the foundation for the classical economic theory of property, serves as basis for the manner in which natural resource access and benefit-sharing policy is currently conceived and implemented (Laird, 2002; Reid et al., 1993). The following article explores the contradictions that have emerged along the commodity chain of the endangered medicinal tree Prunus africana (henceforth P. africana) in Madagascar.1 It examines the political economy of those who are included in and excluded from the commodity chain of natural commodities or ecological resources that are extracted for global production and consumption.2 Utilizing the case of P. africana, the study provides a unique opportunity to look beyond formal property rights and build on theories of access, highlighting in particular the themes of social relations, culture and power in mediating access to resources and benefits that derive from commercialization (Berry, 1993). Results show that power, regulation and exclusion have as much of an effect on accessing the benefits from commercialization as formal property rights (Agrawal, 2001, 2005; Peluso, 2009; Ribot, 1998). In this study, I employ commodity chain analysis to demonstrate that notions of property based solely on formal rights, legal claims or customary rights to natural commodities are outdated and that a more nuanced understanding offers scholars a compelling alternative to the abstract notions found within formal property rights (Sikor and Lund, 2009). For some in Madagascar, trade in the bark of the medicinal tree species Prunus africana represents a vital livelihood activity and lucrative commercial enterprise; for others, it is the quintessential example of unfettered forest exploitation and species mismanagement. Since the early 1970s the bark of the tree has been used commercially to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and glandular disorders (Hall and O’Brien, 2000), and by 1997 it had grown to an estimated annual value of close to US$ 220 million worldwide (Cunningham et al., 1997). Unlike some plants that can be picked up and grown in managed systems almost anywhere in the world, P. africana is considered an endangered species and can only be found growing in a few 1. This research is based on fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Madagascar in 2005 and 2006 (Neimark, 2009). Between October 2005 and April 2006, two successive trips were made to the Sofia Region in Madagascar’s northwestern Province of Mahajanga. The author also visited a site roughly 90 km north of Madagascar’s capital of Antananarivo in the region of Anjozorbe. He conducted in-depth interviews with harvesters, collectors and chefs d’´equipe (heads of collection) on the role they play in the P. africana trade, their relationship to others in the commodity chain and the earnings made in five representative villages. Follow-up interviews were carried out and most economic data were completed with the assistance of project managers, university and independent scientists and researchers, and administrators of the National Prunus africana Committee (NPC) located at different agencies, including the Silo National Graines Foresti`eres (SNGF), the Direction G´en´erale des Eaux et Forˆets (DGEF), the national pharmacological research centre (CNARP) and the University of Antananarivo. 2. I use the term ‘natural commodities’ to refer to biogenetic resources used in drug discovery and development in bioprospecting programmes.
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sites in Africa. Access to the tree in Madagascar is therefore highly regulated and controlled at a number of different political levels. The larger extraction firms, however, have found ways to negotiate conservation regulations and finesse their way into gaining access to specific sites of critical biodiversity where P. africana is still found. This raises a number of questions about who will obtain future access to the species and under what conditions this access will be provided. Extraction firms have primarily gained and maintained access to P. africana in two ways: first they have teamed up with Malagasy state institutions and conservation organizations to carry out sustainable harvesting and other associated conservation activities; and second, they have reorganized the labour force, taking advantage of flexible workers, and reaching increasingly remote areas where the tree can be found. Extractors have had to conform to the demands of national and international CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) regulators. This regulation has translated into a wholesale reshaping of the commodity chain. When CITES first took effect in the mid-1990s, control of the industry was consolidated in a few firms as smaller traders could not keep up with the changing regulatory landscape; many of the smaller firms therefore dropped out of the trade, or entered into unregulated and illegal harvesting to skirt the stricter CITES regulation. Since a 2002 injunction on collecting, there has been a notable restructuring of labour from ‘permanent’ workers towards a more flexible labour force (Goodman and Watts, 1997). This article attempts to illustrate these changes in the labour force and to articulate how extraction firms in Madagascar have managed, through ‘green conditionalities’ or conservation concessions, to continue the extraction of P. africana in the face of widespread regulation.
COMMODITY CHAIN ANALYSIS
Scholarship in agrarian studies and political ecology has opened new ways of analysing, defining and theorizing access to, and extraction of, natural resources (Peluso and Watts, 2001; Zerner, 2000). Sara Berry’s history of the politics of land access and control within sub-Saharan agrarian settings typifies the burgeoning and insightful literature shaping much of the work on access to, and control of, natural resources (Berry 1993, 1997; see also Ribot, 1998). Berry highlights the fact that peasant-based social networks often play a large part in helping to define who gains and maintains access to productive agricultural land. Scholars of access have observed similar social relations within common property regimes (Bromley, 1989; McCay and Acheson, 1987; Ostrom, 1990; Shipton and Goheen, 1992), and alternative economies (St Martin, 2001). Such groundbreaking work has opened up opportunities to rethink the distribution of benefits captured from natural resource extraction (Rocheleau et al., 1997), and particularly distributive
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rights following the commercialization of biodiversity (Schroeder, 2000; Zerner, 2000). Ribot highlights the importance of maintenance and control as important components of delineating access. For Ribot (1998: 311), maintenance is about ‘expending resources or power to keep access open for oneself or others’, whereas control is exerting power over ‘others’ access’. This view of the dynamics surrounding access is clearly in line with the P. africana case where extraction firms use a number of legal (permits, licences, fees, taxes) and extra-legal (subsidies to development projects, marketing, lobbying) means to gain access to and control the flow of the valuable bark. Furthermore, select access to natural resources is made available to local elites though kickbacks, bribery and exclusive social networks (Peluso, 1993). In this article similar patterns are observed in Madagascar, where access is granted to firms and scientific elites as a result of conservation projects, and where powerful actors are able to gain and maintain access through finesse in their dealings with conservation organizations and state institutions in Madagascar. This article proposes the use of commodity chain analysis (CCA) as a theoretical and empirical tool to analyse the dynamics surrounding access to P. africana. Commodity chains were first defined by Hopkins and Wallerstein (1994: 17) to describe ‘network[s] of labo[u]r and production processes whose end result is a finished commodity’. Since then, commodity chains have been used to map the disenfranchisement of actors along the chain (Friedland et al., 1981; Thrupp, 1990). More recent scholarly work into CCA has opened the door both theoretically and empirically to explore power relations that coalesce around different commodities (Bernstein, 1996; Gibbon and Ponte, 2005; Goodman and Watts, 1997; Raikes et al., 2000; Ribot, 1998). Natural commodity extraction follows trajectories similar to those observed in other producer-driven commodity chain studies in which the material relations (i.e., available labour, physical location, ease of extraction) surrounding the resource ultimately affects its value (Dupuis, 2002; Goodman and Watts, 1997). Ribot and Peluso (2003) show that ‘bundles of powers’ ultimately affect the value of a resource and subsequently shape any given actor’s ability to benefit from that resource. They list a number of categories (i.e., technology, capital, markets, labour, knowledge, authority, identity and social relations) that must be factored into a political economic analysis of natural resource extraction (ibid.). This study follows suit with an empirical and political economic focus on the P. africana market to trace who benefits from the trade in valuable natural commodities (Ribot, 1998).
THE CASE OF PRUNUS AFRICANA IN MADAGASCAR
Prunus africana is found growing across Africa, where it is sometimes referred to as Pygeum africanum, African cherry or red stinkwood (Cunningham and Mbenkum, 1993: Stewart, 2003). For over three decades,
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medicinal properties found in the bark have been used commercially to treat BPH and prostate gland hypertrophy (Bombardelli and Marazzoni, 1997; Marandola et al., 1997; Wei et al., 2005). P. africana represents a genetic resource that has been clearly identified as possessing important medicinal properties, but can neither be chemically synthesized nor easily reproduced ex situ, necessitating extraction of the biological material at its ‘point of origin’. As such, continued extraction continues to put pressure on ‘wild’ stocks of the species. The intensive commercial exploitation of the species has led to a decline in populations of mature trees in many African countries, prompting growing international concern which culminated in 1995 with the listing of P. africana under Appendix II of CITES.3 In Madagascar, concerted action was taken to regulate the overexploitation of the species and to conserve remaining stands. For example, a special scientific committee was formed to study the feasibility of quotas, nursery cultivation and training on sustainable harvesting (BIODEV, 2000; Cunningham, 2006). P. africana seeds were collected and nurseries were established across the country by Malagasy national research institutes, conservation NGOs and exporting firms. Despite years of conservation efforts, however, bark exports continued to increase, reaching their highest level in 2000 (SNGF, 2006). These developments, in turn, spurred an injunction by the Malagasy government against all P. africana bark collection by 2002.4 In the sections below, an overview is given of the history of P. africana extraction in Madagascar. This is followed by a discussion of the impact of the CITES listing, the subsequent injunction against open access harvesting and the resultant restructuring of the commodity chain. An explicit focus on labour relations and the politics of environmental regulation surrounding the industrial extraction of the medicinal tree bark provides a fuller understanding of the primary actors who are able to gain access to critical sites where P. africana is found and thereby control the market. The Habitat of P. africana in Madagascar
P. africana can primarily be found growing across three different regions of Madagascar. It is found in the north, from the Tsaratanana mountains to the central Tampoketsan and the Ankazobe-Ankaratra range (SNGF, 2006); in the western province of Mahajanga, especially in the region of Sofia; 3. Madagascar has been a signatory of CITES since 1975. CITES Appendices I, II and III describe different degrees of protection given to species identified at risk of overexploitation (see CITES, 2010). A species listed in Appendix II is subject to controlled trade with some restrictions on exporting and importing for commercial purposes. A more detailed explanation of the convention can be found at: http://www.cites.org/eng/app/index.shtml 4. As observed in the Inter-ministerial order 13.855/2001 of November 2001 and found in the Forestry Law 97/781 and 98/782. Two firms were allowed to continue collecting, thanks to existing permits that extended into 2003 (SNGF, 2006).
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and extensively in the eastern regions of Moramanga and Ambatondrazaka (Dawson and Rabevohitra, 1996), as shown in Figure 1.5 The industrial exploitation of P. africana in Madagascar began in the early 1970s in the region of Sofia, mainly around the northwestern town of Bealanana (FAO, 2003). Bark was collected by French and Malagasy companies and transported to the western port of Mahajanga for export to Europe. These early operations were fairly centralized with a few companies controlling the transport and collection (SNGF, 2006). This region continued to be the main site for P. africana until 1984, when stocks of the tree diminished and sites on the eastern forest corridor began to be opened for exploitation. In 1988, the forests bordering on the Integral Natural Reserve (RNI) of Zahamena and the classified forests of Didy became the main sites for P. africana extraction (BIODEV, 2000; Walter and Rakotonirina, 1995). This region continued to be harvested until 1994, when exploitation widened to encompass the regions of Moramanga and Ambotonazaka (Walter and Rakotonirina, 1995).6 Unlike earlier phases, collection of bark at this time was highly decentralized, with many small firms operating from scattered forest sites as far north as Antsiranana, and as far south as Fianarantsoa, including the areas of Anjozorobe, Andilamena and Nosibe-an’ala. In 1999, P. africana collection returned to the Sofia region. This was to remain the last site of official collection until the government injunction in 2002; by 2005, only a limited number of official collections were still sanctioned via a state quota system (SNGF, 2006). The Dynamics of Commercialization
There have been three periods of P. africana exportation in Madagascar since its inception in 1972. These reflect the commercial trajectory of P. africana bark, increasing awareness of the consequences of overexploitation, and the subsequent tightening of regulations controlling commercial extraction. This periodization also illustrates how political changes in Madagascar over time have restructured the relationship between the Malagasy government and P. africana collectors, and the overall commodity chain. In the early period of P. africana extraction, the state maintained very little control over either the quantity of bark collected or the specific locations demarcated for extraction. One of the larger French operators apparently set its own voluntary limits on the amount of bark that was to be harvested in a
5. Although reports do exist of P. africana growing in the southern regions near Fianarantsoa, this was not corroborated by any official surveys. 6. The guidelines for regulation of additional forest products, including P. africana, are found in the Inter-ministerial decree No. 2915/87 of 30 June 1987.
Subverting Regulatory Protection of Natural Commodities Figure 1. Geographical Distribution of Prunus Africana Extraction in Madagascar
Source: adapted from BIODEV (2000); see also Walter and Rakotonirina (1995).
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specific area, presumably to make the harvest more sustainable.7 Nonetheless, even these harvesting rules were rarely enforced and, given the remoteness of the harvesting locations, individual harvesters were essentially left to regulate themselves. This lax control resulted in heavy extraction throughout the Sofia region — almost 1.3 million kg of raw bark was exported out of Madagascar during this period (Schippmann, 2001). Although bark exports fluctuated, a rough Malagasy government estimate sets the figure at slightly over 115 tonnes in P. africana exports per annum (see Figure 2).8 P. africana was thus firmly established as an important export for the Malagasy state and the country became one of the largest traders of bark in the world, second only to Cameroon (ibid.). Seeking to capitalize on the worldwide demand in the herbal market, the Malagasy government began a joint venture with the Italian company, Indena SpA, to create a factory to process medicinal plants in Fianarantsoa, a city in the south-central region of Madagascar.9 The facility was thus run primarily by a state company, SODIP (Socie´ te´ pour le De´ velopment Industrial des Plantes Madagascar), and its exporting arm, SOPRAEX (Socie´ te´ Promotion pour les Produits Agricoles d’Exportation), with a private Italian pharmaceutical firm, Indena, providing technical support. As part of the wave of privatization by the Ratsiraka regime, in December 1999, SODIP was sold outright to Indena SpA, and the Italian firm proceeded to transform the site into one of the largest and most profitable medicinal plant operations in eastern Africa and Madagascar.10 Due to the new technological capacity of the facility, bark could be brought to the facility moist or dry, crushed or whole. These new processes of production not only changed the way P. africana could be collected, but because bark was now being transported mainly in extract form more of it could be exported per year (Kloppenburg, 2004; Mann and Dickinson, 1978). By 1995, P. africana was officially listed on CITES Appendix II. In terms of the national adoption of regulation, Madagascar still did not preclude the felling of the tree and stripping of the bark; however, two-year permits for collection were granted on the condition that sustainable harvesting regulations would be followed and that firms would contribute to the regeneration 7. For example, a limit of 50 per cent of the bark on each standing tree could be harvested on trees that were old enough to withstand harvesting (Cunningham and Mbenkum, 1993; Walter and Rokotonirina, 1995). 8. These government estimates are difficult to verify since very little documentation exists on the exportation of P. africana during that period. The estimate puts the total at somewhere around 1.6 million kg. 9. Fianarantsoa was purposely chosen by the government of Madagascar to house the factory following country-wide efforts to spur industry and economic development outside the capital of Antananarivo. 10. At the time of this research in 2006, the facility was still exporting bark extracts from Madagascar to Tours, France, and the company’s home-base of Milan, Italy. In Madagascar, Indena SpA, which markets the drugs Pigenil and Prunus Select, reported sales of more than US$ 150 million in 1999 (Cunningham, 2006: 23).
Sources: Export data were compiled from the following sources: 1972–87, 1985–95: Rasoanaivo (1996) 1996–88: Walter and Rakotonirina (1995) and Service technique 1999–2005: Service de la conservation de la biodiversite – DGEF The datasets from 1986 and 1987 are currently unavailable
Figure 2. Total P. Africana Bark Exported from 1972 to 2005
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of the species in the wild.11 However, even with the tree under CITES regulation, no limits were set for the number of trees or the amount of bark that could be harvested (Walter and Rakotonirina, 1995). At the industry level, the larger P. africana companies in Madagascar responded to the CITES designation with ‘self-imposed’ harvesting rules. They also set up P. africana conservation projects through negotiations with bilateral development organizations and foreign institutions. These projects contributed to a number of inventories of P. africana stock and established nurseries at two different sites in northern Madagascar (Cunningham, 2006; Dailey and Fernandes, 2001).12 Firms were obligated to collect seeds during the harvest, return them to the scientific committee, and pay extra taxes and fees to regional and district forestry offices for materials and training support for sustainable collection methods. During this period, the global demand for P. africana was on the rise. Even with large-scale regulation in effect, more bark was exported than at any other time in Malagasy history. This is reflected in the increased exports of both bark powder and extracts, with roughly 600 tonnes of raw bark and 14,000 tonnes of bark extract (estimated dried bark equivalence of 2.82 million kg) exported to France, Italy and Switzerland annually between 1995 and 1998 (Schippmann, 2001). Extracts peaked at their highest levels in 1997 with 3,091 tonnes (ibid.). The continuing high export rates reflect the importance of P. africana to the Malagasy economy; indeed, it was designated one of the country’s leading commercial export products (ibid.). Malagasy government statistics show overall that the exportation of raw bark and bark extracts remained at moderately high levels until 2001, with a roughly 42 per cent increase in raw bark exports from the first to the second period (1972–1984) (see Figures 2 and 3). The third period, which commenced in 2002 and continues today, is characterized by a contentious relationship between the few remaining firms that collect and export P. africana and the Malagasy government. The government is under considerable pressure to conform to the objectives of various donors, and specifically to fulfil its commitments under CITES. Decision making regarding the use and control of valuable natural resources has shifted dramatically in favour of environmental NGOs who view the case of P. africana as a leading example of inept state enforcement and poor natural resource management by the rural Malagasy. This tension between operators and NGOs culminated in the injunction on all types of collection of bark mentioned above, and has resulted in a dramatic decrease in both raw bark and bark extract exports since 2002. On average, raw bark exports have dropped from over 236,000 to 19,790 kg per year, while bark extract 11. Explanations of permits can be found in the Inter-ministerial decree No. 2915/87 of 30 June 1987. 12. This work was financed by the Landscape Development Interventions (LDI)/USAID project.
Sources: Export data were compiled from the following sources: 1992–95: Rasoanaivo (1996) 1996–88: Service technique 1999–2005: Service de la conservation de la biodiversite — DGEF
Figure 3. Total P. Africana Extract Exports from 1982 to 2005
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exports have declined from an average of 3,320 kg to 371 kg per year from the second to the third period (see Figures 2 and 3).13 More recently, two major developments at the international level have dramatically altered the landscape of P. africana commercialization. The first involved new guidelines for the enforcement of the 1995 listing of the species on CITES Appendix II, which declared that it may soon become threatened with extinction unless trade is closely monitored. The second major regulatory action was the implementation of a broad-based study to monitor extraction. In December 2003, with funds provided by the bilateral donor, Le Cooperation Franc¸ais, a two-year national action plan was launched, specifically focusing on P. africana — the Plan d’Action National de Prunus Africana, or PNPa. The PNPa focused on procedures to monitor harvesting in order to make sure that operators were not overexploiting stocks. This process of monitoring led to a new convention which allows companies in Madagascar to resume bark collection in designated ‘test’ plots within the newly designated protected area of Makira.14 Quotas, permits and harvesting licences for bark exporting were granted during this period to firms working within the national action plan guidelines. Thus, the firms ‘hand-picked’ for participation in the PNPa were essentially provided select access to designated protected areas.
THE COMMODITY CHAIN OF P. AFRICANA
As the total amount of exports decreased after the 2002 injunction on bark harvesting in Madagascar, there was a parallel decrease in the number of firms and individuals involved in collecting P. africana, and a shift in the type of actors involved in the commodity chain overall (see Table 1). The structure of the commodity chain of P. africana is built on a somewhat fluid set of market relationships among individuals and groups that join and disengage at particular times. Bark is locally harvested by groups of rural harvesters living adjacent to forested sites. These groups are assembled and organized by a small set of local elites (chefs d’´equipe) who buy the bark at the village level. After bark is bought at the rural sites, individual collectors, operating alone or in conjunction with collection firms, transport the bark 13. Exact data on exports must be interpreted with some caution. The Malagasy government’s statistics have been very difficult to verify, and have been shown to conflict with corporate data on exports. These differences are related to a lack of transparency and reliable export reporting, and the difficulty of measuring differences in bark that has been transformed from raw bark (Cunningham, 2006). However, the overall pattern of exports has been verified by a number of sources inside Madagascar and by exporters outside the country. 14. Makira Natural Park will be one of Madagascar’s largest protected areas, and the first established under the Durban Vision. The park will be managed by the US Conservation NGO, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The site was one of the original areas where the P. africana test plots were to be established.
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Table 1. Typology of Actors Involved in the P. Africana Commodity Chain
Actor Peasant harvesters Chef d’´equipe
Firm collector Collectors
Exporters Importers (Europe and the USA)
Description of activity Collect ‘wild’ P. africana Organize harvest and control the ‘point of sale’; some quality control Transport material Buy/sell, transport, post-harvest production and processing, quality control Buy, package and export material Processing, packaging and marketing finished herbal product
Type of work (contract, wage or payment on sale)
Estimated number involved before the 2002 injunction
Estimated number involved after the 2002 injunction
>1000
>100
50
10
N/A 25
