March 11, 2024

Airmid Institute welcomes the Alliance of International Aromatherapists as an Association Member

The Alliance of International Aromatherapists

The Alliance of International Aromatherapists (AIA) firmly believes that sustainability is not just a choice, but a responsibility. Recognizing the importance of environmental responsibility, we advocate for ethical sourcing and production practices that prioritize the conservation of plant resources and ultimately the future of aromatherapy. The AIA encourages the use of sustainable farming methods, emphasizing organic cultivation and the protection of biodiversity. We believe in fostering transparent supply chains, supporting fair trade initiatives, and collaborating with producers who share our dedication to environmental stewardship. One tangible way we do this is through our support of small distillers.

February 5, 2024

The Toucan Green Skills Initiative

Peruvian Shipibo Adler Pacaya Paredes and Dr. Kelly Ablard were honored to co-present “Preserving medicinal and aromatic plants: an Indigenous perspective” at the NAHA World of Aromatherapy XI Beyond Aromatics V Conference in Salt Lake City, UT. They highlighted the significant challenge humanity faces with the environmental impacts of climate change on essential oil- and carrier oil-bearing plants and emphasized the crucial role of Indigenous peoples and their traditional ecological knowledge in preserving these plants.

The presentation, which shed light on the vital contributions of unnoticed Indigenous communities, received an emotional standing ovation and led to a generous $5,000 donation from the NAHA Board of Directors in support of Airmid Institute’s Shipibo-led Toucan Project. The funds will be used for the Toucan Green Skills Initiative, a 90-day sustainability agent training program for Shipibo individuals, focusing on ancestral cultivation techniques, ecology, agroforestry, and conservation efforts. Airmid Institute will establish a Shipibo-only partner committee in Peru to oversee the training and work towards official recognition from the Ministry of Education, ensuring that the sustainability agents receive certification upon completion. Airmid Institute extends its gratitude to the dedicated NAHA Team for their unwavering support, which has made a significant and positive difference for these remarkable Indigenous communities.

January 10, 2024

Airmid Insitute Welcomes Robins Resins Plus Online Store

Airmid Institute welcomes Business Member Robins Resins Plus Online Store which is a subsidiary of RBK Aromatherapy LLC founded by Robin B. Kessler.

Robin is a Certified Clinical Aromatherapist specializing in using Aromatherapy in Hospice as well as working with Pain Management Health Practitioners. She is also a specialist in frankincense resins and works with many distillers all over the world to make sure these resins and other plants are produced using sustainable means. She has written a book called Frankincense Resins The Journey and Beyond which teaches all about each resin and how to use them sustainably. She is the owner of She sells sustainable resin and essential oils plus artisan organic products she makes for therapeutic purposes. She gives courses on frankincense and does several webinars for different organizations. She is a Clinical Member of NAHA plus approved Continuing Education Provider, Professional Member of IFPA and Business member of AIA, all outstanding Aromatherapy Organizations, plus a member of United Plant Savers.

December 18, 2023

Airmid Insitute Welcomes the CAOA as an Association Member

Airmid welcomes Professional Aromatherapy Association, the Canadian Alliance of Aromatherapy (CAOA) as an Association Member! We are honored to be working with this amazing organization whose mission is to establish and maintain high professional standards for aromatherapists by ensuring they participate in continuing education and adhere to ethical practices and sustainability principles related to essential oils. We collaborate with reputable partners to provide education and training opportunities, and advocate for sustainability within the industry by raising awareness among our members about ethical and environmental concerns.

December 15, 2023

Welcome Maria Fiordalisi of Helianthus Holistic Arts

Helianthus Holistic Arts

Airmid is excited to welcome Helianthus Holistic Arts into its Airmid Plant Protector Program! Founded by Maria Fiordalisi, Helianthus Holistic Arts a multi-disciplinary holistic school, focused on aromatherapy education. Maria is committed to educating and promoting the conservation and sustainable management of threatened medicinal and aromatic plants. Her aim is to increase awareness, drive positive change, and inspire others to become responsible stewards of our environment.

October 24, 2023

New Business Member: NYC Aromatica

Airmid Institute welcomes Business Member NYC Aromatica, founded by Amy Anthony. Amy’s practice is guided by the principles of accessible aromatherapy, “less is more: small is big.” She promotes sustainable aromatherapy by engaging with aromatic plants through gardening, incense, teas, and culinary applications, acknowledging that many people turn to essential oils for their emotional and spiritual benefits but not everyone can access them.

She advocates for minimal use of essential oils for maximum impact, offering usage guidelines for various applications. Amy also supports local aromatic plants, promoting the idea of thinking globally but acting locally to reduce supply chain issues. Through her affiliation with Airmid Institute, she gains awareness of sustainability and environmental concerns, enhancing her ability to be a responsible and informed aromatherapy practitioner and educator.

July 21, 2023

Welcome Julia Falkenstein!

Please join Airmid Institute in welcoming Airmid Institute’s Ambassador of Germany, Julia Falkenstein! Julia will be working with Airmid Institute to identify fragile medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) native to Germany for public dissemination, implement multi-regional educational projects focused on the protection of native MAPs, and to promote sustainable traditional distillation and the use of locally sourced MAPs for aromatherapy. You can read more about Julia by clicking below.

June 14, 2023

New Airmid Junior Ambassador Badges

Airmid Junior Ambassador Badge

Dr. Kelly Ablard and Dr. Jacqui Stringer will be presenting the first ever Airmid Junior Ambassadors with their badges on June 30th at Knowsley School located in North West England! Children’s educational programs that support opportunities for them to connect to Nature has been a focus of Airmid’s since our inception, and further inspired by 2021 The Dasgupta Review, which places a heavy emphasis on children.

“Every child in every country is owed the teaching of natural history, to be introduced to the awe and wonder of the natural world, and to appreciate how it contributes to our lives. Establishing the natural world within educational policy would contribute to countering the shifting baseline, whereby we progressively redefine ourselves as inhabitants of an emptying world and believe that what we see is how it is and how it will continue to be. This shifting baseline has been termed the ‘extinction of experience’ (Pyle, 1993).

Achieving tangible effects, however, is not straightforward. The development and design of environmental education programmes can be directed to overcome the problems. In their wide-ranging survey documenting direct impacts of environmental education, Ardoin, Bowers, and Gaillard (2020) have suggested that focusing on local issues or locally relevant dimensions of broader issues, such as collaborating with scientists, resource managers and community organisations, is of enormous help. Our emphasis in the Review on the role of communities and civil societies in the economics of biodiversity is consonant with that line of thinking.542

But even that would not be enough. Connecting with Nature needs to be woven throughout our lives. The connection has been found to decline from childhood to an overall low in the mid-teens, followed by a steady rise that reaches a plateau lasting the rest of one’s life (Hughes et al. 2019). It is a cruel irony that we surround children with pictures and toys of animals and plants, only to focus subsequently on more conceptual knowledge, marginalising environmental education relative to the wider curriculum.”

The Airmid Junior Ambassador program, founded and currently managed by Airmid Ambassador of the U.K. Dr. Stringer was developed to address these challenges. Educational programs as part of Airmid Institute’s work are also taking root in Taiwan.

June 13, 2023

Welcome Birgit Salling!

Airmid Institute is excited to welcome Birgit Salling as their Chief Administrative Officer! We are fortunate that Birgit is joining us where she will share her love for Nature and medicinal and aromatic plants, and bring to us her vast experience in numerous healing modalities, exceptional administrative skills in office and in management. Her support of Airmid and its team will be invaluable. You can read more about Birgit here and welcome her by emailing [email protected].

May 15, 2023

Associations Around the World Working with Airmid Institute

Airmid Institute highlights international professional aromatherapy associations – International Aromatherapy and Aromatic Medicine Association (IAAMA – Australia), Association of Professional Aromatherapy and Care in Switzerland (ARTHES – Switzerland), and the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA – USA) for joining Airmid Institute as Professional Association Members!

Airmid is honored to be working with these incredible associations which are dedicated to the protection of fragile essential and carrier oil bearing-plants, and their use in traditional medicine. We thank them for supporting ‘green’ aromatherapy, their dedication to bringing awareness, information, and extended benefits relevant to sustainability directly to their members, and for their shared vision of a healthier planet for future generations.

July 26, 2022

Meet our Airmid Institute Advisory Board

Airmid Institute welcomes five new members to our Advisory Board, which is still growing! It is an honor to have the collective expertise of Olivier Behra – Founder, Man and the Environment; Sue Canney Davison, PhD – Research Associate, University of Johannesburg; Stephen Johnson, BSc – Founder, FairSource Botanicals LLC; Dr. James E. Simon – Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University; and Dr. Benoit Roger – Founder, Alchemia Solutions, to guide Airmid Institute as we continue to grow. To read more about this exceptional team, please click below.

July 11, 2022

Introducing our Medicinal and Aromatic Plant (MAP) Supply Chain Series

Stephen Johnson

Andy Thornton

Take part in the Airmid Institute Medicinal and Aromatic Plant (MAP) Supply Chain Series!

The medicinal and aromatic plants we love and commonly use are harvested from all corners of the globe, and many of them — such as frankincense ‘Boswellia’ spp., myrrh ‘Commiphora’ spp., copaiba ‘Copaifera’ spp., spikenard ‘Nardostachys jatamansi’, elemi ‘Canarium luzonicum’, palo santo ‘Bursera graveolens’, shea ‘Vitellaria paradoxa’, and white sage ‘Salvia apiana’ are collected primarily or entirely from the wild. These plants are often part of complex socio-ecological systems wherein the survival of both plants and people are mutually dependent.

However, wild-harvested plants are vulnerable to common challenges opaque supply chains with limited traceability result in – poor harvesting practices, illegal harvesting, exportation and importation, poor adaptation strategies in response to impacts of climate change, limited benefits to harvesters and their communities, a lack of readily available ubiquitous sourcing guidelines for consumers, and greenwashing.

June 28, 2022

Dr. Kelly Ablard Honoured by Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University

The Department of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University (SFU) hosts an “exceptional alumnus” lecture each year. They recently broadened their focus after seeing that a number of their alumni pursued fascinating jobs in the business and NGO sectors based on their biological interests. To demonstrate to SFU graduate and undergraduate students that there are professional routes other than academic positions, the department aims to honor this kind of accomplishment.

Dr. Kelly Ablard, SFU alumnus* and Founder and Executive Director of Airmid Institute, is pleased to have been invited alongside other distinguished SFU alumni, to give a lecture about Airmid Institute, its history, and the journey that inspired her to establish it. Read more about this year’s participants.

This event and the reception to follow is scheduled for Wednesday, October 12, 2022 at 3:30 pm and is open to the public. It will be held at Simon Fraser University, in the Department of Biological Sciences, Burnaby, B.C. Canada. Please contact [email protected] for more details.

*Kelly completed her PhD in 2013. Her main areas of study were chemical ecology, evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology. Her PhD supervisor was Dr. Gerhard Gries, and her PhD committee, Dr. Ronald Ydenberg and Dr. Bernard J. Crespi.