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Protecting biodiversity

/Protecting biodiversity
Protecting biodiversity 2018-03-13T07:28:07-10:00

Respecting resources

Overuse, damage, climate change—people can be considered the primary cause of species extinction. And yet, people have the opportunity and the means to reverse the trend. Still, they must understand this concept, the interest of preserving biodiversity; they must learn the ways of protecting, conserving and managing nature. With a view to respecting resources, we are taking action to raise awareness among all of our natural resource suppliers to ensure that the procurement of our raw materials respects biodiversity. Among these actions, we are currently updating all of our specifications to establish sustainable harvesting methods. We also plan to draft a purchasing charter and a harvesting charter for distribution to our network. With these actions, we hope to improve resource management and limit the spread of invasive species. We select suppliers who apply methods that are favorable to the development of organic farming and who meet the challenges of biodiversity. As part of our R&D and our future promotions, all of our new projects include the selection of non-polluting renewable solvents sourced from plant materials, agro-solvents, and their recycling requirements to avoid excessive consumption. During industrial finalization, processes undergo approval to determine the different technical steps to guarantee output quality and define volumes. The output of raw material processing, in plant oils and juices, is monitored with every production batch.

Preserving plant species

Our focus areas are plants with organized growing methods and larger volumes handled. Our production unit focuses on three primary ingredients: Monoï de Tahiti (with the Appellation d’Origine label), tamanu oil, and noni juice. The iconic flower of French Polynesia, the tiaré Tahiti (Gardenia taitensis) is one of the key ingredients used in crafting Monoï de Tahiti Appellation d’Origine. Over the past 10 years, a worrisome decline has been observed in production area. To prevent the shortage of flowers that threatens the sector, and secure the floral production structure, our group held an in-depth review to rethink growing procedures. In 2015, we founded SCA Fenua Hotu to operate and manage a tiaré flower plantation. Also, to guarantee the production quality of noni juice and contribute to environmentally-friendly farming, an organic fruit and juice sector was created in 2011, with producers located near our processing site. And to give the company’s plant business staying power, from growing to processing, we are studying new projects to acquire farmland, with which we should be able to increase the volume of tiaré Tahiti trees planted, and grow other varieties, according to R&D interests and industrial development potential, with a clear organic farming policy. Since 2016, our group has solidly developed a pro-biodiversity strategy to protect their special biological features, use these elements sustainably, and share the benefits of their use in a fair and balanced way.

Developing Polynesian resources

Given their unique geographic and climate conditions, Tahiti and its islands give rise to a specific phytochemistry that makes Polynesian vegetation particularly attractive for the cosmetics industry. A large number of leading brands in the plant-based and natural cosmetics industry are inspired by our wide-ranging catalogue of ingredients, with 18 natural materials that have been sourced and developed, including 11 plant-based primary ingredients. In Polynesia, trade takes place across a territory equivalent in size to Europe, which does not make inter-island connections easy. Despite this challenge, we have been able to ensure and maintain quality sourcing thanks a network that supplies plant-based raw materials from all over the territory and facilitates the creation of agricultural micro-activities on the most remote islands. In Tahiti, our team is participating in an ongoing study launched jointly in 2016 by the Institut du Monoï and the Department of Parks, Gardens and Property to examine the different species of tiaré flower with a view to creating the Institute’s first conservatory in French Polynesia. This study will allow us to find out more about this flower and select its cultivars according to identified phytochemical profiles in order to expand its uses in the perfume and cosmetics industry beyond monoï oil. The chemical characterization of the various cultivars of tiaré, which will be identified, is invaluable in determining their variability and specificity in order to clarify their biological activity and validate traditional usages.