Iboga Sustainability

Global demand for iboga root bark, which remains a significant source of ibogaine around the world, has put pressure on traditional practice and on the ecology of iboga’s endemic habitat, the Gabonese rainforest. At Alzelmo we take great care in sourcing ibogaine and are deeply committed to a philosophy of sustainability and reciprocity.

We contribute to planting three iboga trees for every treatment conducted at Anzelmo.

We are strong supporters of the work of external organizations dedicated to the protection of iboga and the cultural traditions that surround it. We have committed to contribute towards the planting of three trees in iboga’s endemic habitat in Gabon for each treatment conducted at Anzelmo. It is a small cost that adds towards a large impact, and places our work and the clients that we treat into this cycle of ecological regeneration.

The use of iboga in Gabon reaches back potentially thousands of years, and remains central to Gabonese culture. Like other indigenous traditions and practices, Bwiti is informed by an animistic worldview that expresses a deeper and vital connection to nature and cultural roots.

In the year 2000, the former president of Gabon, Omar Bongo, declared T. iboga a “cultural heritage strategic reserve.” It is now governed by several national laws that place it under the protection of international treaties, most notably the Convention on Biodiversity (Rio 1992, ratified Gabon 1997), Loi n 2/94, Law for the Protection of Cultural Goods (10 Dec 1994), and the Nagoya Protocol (Signed, Gabon July 2012).

The Nagoya Protocol, a subsection of the Convention on Biodiversity, is established to protect access and benefits to genetic resources for traditional knowledge holders. Ibogaine’s complicated legal status makes it difficult to protect within these treaties. Simultaneously, alternative avenues to the production of ibogaine fail to recognize the importance of the sustainability and reciprocity towards the natural roots of this invaluable medicine.

These issues have inspired us to make a commitment to acknowledging the spirit of what the UN treaties were established to protect through direct relationships with Blessings of the Forest and communities in Gabon.