Cosmetics boom could wipe out valuable medicinal plants, campaigners warn

♦wild plants could be at risk of extinction because of their use in cosmetics, campaigners have warned.

Products containing shea butter and argan oil are among those highlighted by wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic as potentially unsustainable.

Shea butter is collected from trees in the Sahel region of Africa and used for chocolate and cosmetics, while argan oil, used in cosmetics and cooking, is extracted from the nuts of the argan tree, which grows in the wild only in Morocco.

The global trade in medicinal plants alone has grown threefold since 1999 to be worth at least £2.3billion in 2015. But now campaigners want consumers to pay more attention to the origins of their products.

Anastasiya Timoshyna, of wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic, said: “It’s in everyone’s interests to ensure that use of wild plants is responsible in terms of ecological and social sustainability.”

Consumers are being urged to look out for the Fairwild logo, which ensures sustainable harvesting and trade, and ask the brands they buy if the plant products in them have been sourced fairly and sustainably.