Illipe butter
Supporting the forest-dwelling Dayak people in Borneo
Illipe butter is a vegetable fat pressed from the nuts of the Shorea stenoptera, an endemic tree growing on the island of Borneo. The tree has a very long trunk and can reach up to 49 meters in height. The illipe trees grow in the Borneo rainforest, home to more than 3,000 species of trees, 2,000 species of orchids, and 1,000 species of ferns – of which over a third are unique to the island (1).
Forestwise, a company based in Borneo that has been a UEBT member since early 2021, is a supplier of raw ingredients that are sourced from Indonesian rainforests. According to the company, Illipe butter is used to moisturize the skin, traditionally used to heal sores and sunburn, and as a flavor-enhancer for traditional dishes. It has a high melting point that allows the butter to give a structure to a wide range of formulations, mostly for the cosmetics sector.
For Dayak communities, the illipe tree is sacred. There are customary rules in harvesting and processing illipe nuts, including related to who can harvest and when the nuts can be harvested, which have promoted responsible practice (2).
© Forestwise
© Forestwise
According to Forestwise, Dayak communities collect illipe nuts directly from the floor once every two to three years (which is the cycle in which mast seasons occur). The collectors wash the nuts in forest streams then dry them in the sun before selling them.
Deforestation is the main challenge threatening Borneo, where primary forests are cleared for palm oil, logging and mining. Wild collection of the illipe nuts relies on forests standing, thus offering income that does not involve deforestation. Local communities collecting the nuts, remove them from the forest floor, thereby leaving some nuts on the tree which supports regeneration. No chemicals or fertilizers are used.
Forestwise sources its illipe nuts from West Kalimantan province in Borneo around the town of Sintang. The company is collaborating with more than 700 Dayak people across 27 different villages. In the region, Illipe nuts are both wild collected and cultivated from tembawangs, a type of forest garden system that local communities have been implementing for centuries. Once Forestwise purchases illipe nuts from local collectors or from forest gardens, they press butter from the nuts and sell the butter to cosmetics clients such as the innovative multinational brand Lush.
Forestwise sees its main role in forest conservation as providing an incentive to work with products from standing forests. Forestwise enters into three-year agreements, which provide producers with a longer-term perspective on the collection of illipe nuts into the next wild gathering season.
Forestwise currently has such agreements with four villages and aims to have by 2025 agreements in place for all the 200.000 hectares where their illipe nuts are collected.
© Forestwise
1. Source: WWF
2. 2020 Case study on illipe nuts conducted by the Partnership for Forests, an investment programme in the region that is funded by UK government aid
