http://www.airmidinstitute.org/

Airmid Institute, Rancho Cucamonga, CA (2026)

08/24/2026

📣Five days left to purchase a ticket! 🎟️

🌿 Watch an amazing film from anywhere in the world - and support a great cause with Airmid! 🎬

Have you been curious about Making a Mini-Forest?

Now is your chance to watch Angelina Lee’s inspiring film exploring the Miyawaki method, mini-forests, biodiversity, and our relationship with trees and nature.

You can join us for the live virtual screening and Q&A with Angelina, or choose the on-demand option and watch the film at your own time.

🌱 Live Screening: August 29, 3:00 PM PT
🌱 On-Demand: August 30 – September 12

And there is another reason to join us:

Your $12 USD ticket purchase helps support the work of Airmid Institute. 💚 bit.ly/4hMWnvI

So, watch a beautiful film, learn more about the importance of trees and biodiversity, and support a great cause at the same time.

08/19/2026

🌱 What if a small patch of land could become a forest?

We have been sharing about the film Making a Mini-Forest, and I know some of you have been curious about this amazing film.

So, here is a little sneak peek! 🎬🌿

Take a look at the trailer and get a glimpse of Angelina Lee’s beautiful film exploring the Miyawaki method, mini-forests, and our relationship with trees and nature.

We hope you will join us for the virtual screening with Angelina, followed by a live Q&A.

🌿 Live Screening: August 29, 3:00 PM PT
🌿 On-Demand Viewing: August 30 – September 12

You can join us live or watch the film at your own time during the two-week on-demand period.

We look forward to sharing this special film with you!

Grab your ticket today! Visit bit.ly/4hMWnvI and watch from anywhere around the globe! All ticket purchases help support the work of Airmid Institute. 🌱

08/11/2026

Join Airmid Institute on August 25th at 10:30 am PT for Ann Harman’s webinar "Baffled by Botanical Binomials?"

Ann Harman is an organic farmer, herbalist and distiller. Ann is the author of Harvest to Hydrosol, a how to book about distilling for hydrosols. She spent decades distilling, lecturing, teaching and researching hydrosols; their chemistry, microbiology, adulteration, heavy metals and performed many comparison experiments through Circle H Institute. She is mostly retired now but still loves sharing her knowledge of the world of plants, distillation and hydrosols through writing, lecturing and offering online.

Ann’s presentation will explore a brief history of plant naming and the role of Latin binomials in creating effective communication about plants across all cultures and disciplines. She will also examine how sustainability initiatives, ethical supply chains, and high-quality research all depend on correct botanical identification, supported by accepted Latin names, voucher specimens, and authoritative botanical reference materials.

By understanding taxonomy as a critical component of conservation, sourcing decisions, and scientific reproducibility, participants gain insight into how accurate plant naming directly influences the protection of biodiversity, stronger supply chains, and long-term access to medicinal and aromatic plants.

This webinar is open to the public and will be recorded for Airmid members.

Please register today and join us! 💚
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/8hldOHk-TPa125Ywg69JUw

08/05/2026

Did you know the Miyawaki method helps to protect medicinal and aromatic plants like neem (‘Azadirachta indica’), tulsi (‘Ocimum tenuiflorum’), and East Indian sandalwood (‘Santalum album’) in India, and white spruce (‘Picea laxa’) and balsam fir (‘Abies balsamea’) in Canada?

These plants are living medicine cabinets which people have relied on for generations, and have been made part of mini-forests popping up around the world because the Miyawaki method plants only what already belongs to a place; so, bringing back the forest often means bringing back the native plant remedies woven into it.

A Miyawaki mini-forest can go into a space as small as 3 square meters, becomes self-sufficient in just 2–3 years, and brings the plants your ancestors might have used in traditional medicine back into local community. This is climate action any of us can see happen, in a place we recognize.

Join us for Making a Mini-Forest, an Angelina Lee film that highlights the Miyawaki method throughout Western Europe and carries an important message about stewardship and protecting biodiversity. It gives people a way to make a difference, all while supporting a great cause.

Angelina Lee is an environmental filmmaker and photographer. Her documentaries have screened at film festivals in Washington, D.C., Canada, New York, and the Grauman's TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. As part of the Barack Obama Scholars Program at Occidental College, she directed the documentary featurette The Big Raise, about regenerative agriculture at a small farm in France.

Grab your ticket today! Scan the QR Code below or visit bit.ly/4hMWnvI and watch from anywhere around the globe!

Live Screening: August 29, 3:00 PM PT
On-Demand: August 30 – September 12

Thank you for your support!

08/04/2026

At Airmid Institute, our Association Members are more than supporters, they are partners in action. 💚

Becoming an Airmid Association Member reflects a genuine commitment to sustainability, and to sharing resources, expertise, and materials that strengthen the broader community working to protect medicinal and aromatic plants.

Membership takes many forms: developing sustainability-focused curricula taught in recognized schools, shaping policy, collaborating on Indigenous-led projects, and bringing these conversations to members through educational webinars. Each association contributes in its own way, and each partnership deepens our shared impact.

To celebrate this network, we're launching a new series where Airmid sits down with the President or Vice President of our Association Members to hear their story, their mission, and how their association is advancing sustainability in the world of medicinal and aromatic plants.

We're kicking off the interviews with Annette George Davis President of NAHA National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy!

Annette Davis is a Certified Clinical Nutritionist and Aromatherapist with 35 years of experience in the field. Since 1989, she has studied under Dr. Jean-Claude Lapraz, a French medical doctor and pioneer in clinical phytoaromatherapy and now teaches phytoaromatherapy and Endobiogeny at the Endobiogenic Integrative Medical Center (EIMC) in Pocatello, Idaho. She also serves as President and formulator for Time Laboratories, a natural products manufacturer founded by her grandmother, Annemarie Buhler, in 1973. Within NAHA Annette rose from Idaho Regional Director to Director Coordinator, Vice President, and, since 2015, President.

Interview link: https://vimeo.com/1214422705?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
--
And we're already looking ahead: our next conversation will feature Jirbie Go, President of Alliance of International Aromatherapists (AIA).

Stay tuned to meet the people and associations shaping the future of ethical, sustainable plant stewardship, one conversation at a time!

Thank you NAHA for your invaluable support! 💚🥰

07/31/2026

Airmid Institute is excited to be joining film director Angelina Lee to bring you her documentary, Making a Mini-Forest.🌳

🍿Live Virtual Screening: August 29, 3:00 PM PT OR On-Demand: August 30 – September 12

The live option includes a Q&A with film director, Angelina Lee, following the documentary, and will be moderated by Fusako Takada, Airmid Ambassador of Japan, and Kelly Ablard, CEO/Founder of Airmid Institute.

Scan the QR code or visit bit.ly/4hMWnvI to view the Making a Mini-Forest trailer.

✨About the Documentary

Making a Mini-Forest (80 minute run time) explores the emerging international movement to plant Miyawaki mini-forests around the globe to combat climate change and restore local biodiversity.

The film premiered at the 2024 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification's COP16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and has since been shown in nine more countries.

💲 Ticket price: $12 USD

Purchase your ticket by scanning the QR code or visiting bit.ly/4hMWnvI

Once you purchase a ticket, viewing information will be made available to you via email.

100% of proceeds go to Airmid Institute, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to protect medicinal and aromatic plants, and their use in traditional medicine, for future generations.

We are grateful for this amazing opportunity to share this film with you, and to help spread the word about the Miyawaki method, a powerful, community-driven approach to restoring biodiversity one small forest at a time.

Please help us reach our goal and join us in celebrating this important work and inspiring documentary!

✨About the Director, Angelina Lee

Angelina Lee is an environmental filmmaker and photographer. Her documentaries have screened at film festivals in Washington, D.C., Canada, New York, and the Grauman's TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. As part of the Barack Obama Scholars Program at Occidental College, she directed the documentary featurette The Big Raise, about regenerative agriculture at a small farm in France.

Thank you! 💚

07/24/2026

Thank you Jirbie Go, Airmid Ambassador of the Philippines, for creating such a fun video, Tree Barks Tell Stories Too, with the help of Airmid Ambassador dendrophiles representing South Africa, the Netherlands, Ireland, Egypt, Portugal, Malta, Germany, Lebanon, Brazil, Croatia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Japan.

Seeing this global network come together around a shared love of trees is exactly what Airmid is about: people and plants across continents and cultures, united by roots.

Khalil Gibran said, “Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky." Trees are not only poems, but healers of the planet and humans.

Research on Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) shows consistent evidence that time among trees reduces stress, lowers cortisol, and supports mood and immune function (Hansen et al., 2017; Antonelli et al., 2019).

We are always reminded to stop and smell the roses, but when is the last time you stopped to greet the trees?

That small shift in attention, from admiring a plant to acknowledging it, is at the heart of what Airmid stands for: seeing plants not just as resources, but as living things worth knowing, protecting, and thanking. 💚

Antonelli, M., Barbieri, G., & Donelli, D. (2019). Effects of forest bathing (shinrin-yoku) on levels of cortisol as a stress biomarker: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Biometeorology, 63(8), 1117–1134. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-019-01717-x

Gibran, K. (1926). Sand and foam. Alfred A. Knopf.

Hansen, M. M., Jones, R., & Tocchini, K. (2017). Shinrin-Yoku (forest bathing) and nature therapy: A state-of-the-art review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(8), 851. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080851

07/14/2026

Join us on July 21st for a free virtual journey to Latin America, where we will hear from Elizângela Rúbia Ramos Pinto, Claudia Codriansky, and Nayla Holgado - and meet special plants like palo santo ('Bursera graveolens') and rosewood ('Aniba rosaeodora') through the work of Dra. Miguel Puescas Chully (northern Peru) and Adler Pacaya Paredes (central Peru).

This special webinar, “The Aromatic Language of the Latin American Biomes: Toward Reciprocal Sustainability” examines the intersection of Latin American ethnobotanical traditions and modern biopsychology.

By analyzing the ecological intelligence of diverse biomes and their native medicinal and aromatic species, we will explore how ancestral practices serve as sophisticated frameworks for emotional regulation and self-nurturing.

Central to this exploration is the principle of reciprocal sustainability: our personal well-being depends on the active conservation of these fragile ecosystems.

We will address the vital importance of ethical sourcing and the protection of biodiversity, ensuring that our search for healing supports, rather than depletes, the cultural and environmental landscapes of Latin America. Participants will learn to apply these "biomic lessons" to restore autonomic homeostasis and enhance the body's innate capacity for self-compassion.

Together, we will learn from this Latin American powerhouse - their collective knowledge spanning clinical social psychology, integrative therapy, and clinical aromatherapy, to forest regeneration and environmental science.

Schedule (PT):

10:30–11:30 am: Elizângela Rúbia Ramos Pinto (Brazil), Claudia Codriansky (Chile), and Nayla Holgado (Argentina) examine the intersection of Latin American ethnobotanical traditions and modern biopsychology, and the principle of reciprocal sustainability.

11:30 am–12:00 pm: Dra. Miguel Puescas Chully (northern Peru) will guide us through his work on palo santo ('Bursera graveolens'), including his collaboration with the women of Casitas on palo santo essential oil, within the framework of university social responsibility. He will also explore the essential oil's chemistry and the management of wild populations under the Sustainable Forestry Development Model.

12:00–12:30 pm: Shipibo Adler Pacaya Paredes (central Peru) will share and strengthen dialogue on social and environmental responsibility related to the Shipibo-Konibo indigenous communities and the sustainable use of medicinal and aromatic species of the Peruvian Amazon, such as palo rosa ('Aniba rosaeodora'), as well as other plants of great ethnobotanical, medicinal, and cultural value.

We hope you will join us for this special journey to Latin America.

⭐️This webinar is open to the public, will be translated into Spanish during the live session, and will be recorded for Airmid Institute members.

Please register today and join us via this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/8PnQH74NQd2GDrqdf-rkkQ

“When we inhale the scent of a plant, we are listening to its story. The planet's aromatic medicinal flora speaks a language of deep connection, one that invites us to receive its healing gifts with open, grateful hearts.

Reciprocal sustainability is an open invitation to change how we relate to nature. It is a gentle reminder that for every drop of precious oil we harvest, we can give love, protection, and care back into the soil. An invitation to truly dance with these incredible beings in a shared ecosystem of healing”. Elizângela Rúbia Ramos Pinto

Know to Love, Love to Care.

07/02/2026

Airmid's Biannual List Is Now Public and a Whole Lot Easier to Use 💚

It started in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2012. I was sitting with my essential oils and carrier oils, and a question I couldn’t shake crept in: "what do we know about the conservation and CITES status of these plants?"

That question became a small, personal list. Today, it has grown into one of Airmid Institute’s core resources, shaped by contributors from around the world and translated into multiple languages along the way. 🙏

And now, I am thrilled to share that the "Airmid Biannual List of Wild Threatened, Near Threatened, and CITES-Protected Plants, Mammals, Fungi, and Seaweed Species Used in Aromatherapy, Perfumery, and Aromatic Herbalism" has launched online as three tables:

1) Global and National, 2) Airmid’s Watchful Eye, and 3) Animal Fixatives.

What’s new? 📣
-Updated taxonomic listings
-The addition of common name(s) and synonym(s)
-A search feature to quickly find a species
-Interactive tables you can adjust to view tables from the top or the bottom, and adjust the number of entries (10 – 100 per page) you’d like displayed on the page.
-Live links to Plants of the World Online (POWO), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, and Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) for every listed species so you can dig deeper into the data behind many of the species.
-Photo submissions (see How to Submit a Photo on the main page - address shared below)

Why these matter? 🤷‍♀️
These tables are meant to do two things: teach, and guide. They are an educational window into the conservation status of the plants, fungi, and other species central to our work, and they are a practical reference for ethical sourcing.

To be clear, every species deserves careful, thoughtful sourcing. But the species in these tables, those confirmed threatened, near threatened, and/or CITES-protected in the wild, need that extra layer of attention.

It takes a village! 💚
These tables and launch would not exist without a small community of people who gave their valuable time and expertise.

Airmid Institute is honored to be collaborating with Ann Harman on the ongoing updating and refinement of the Biannual List. She made the tables possible, and her work strengthened the botanical accuracy behind every entry, resolved taxonomic questions, and ensured each species was represented with the clarity and precision it deserved.

A heartfelt thank you to Nathan Wallace, Airmid’s webmaster for nearly a decade, for the expertise and patience it took to bring this list to life so beautifully online.

And to everyone who contributed images 📸 to bring these species into focus, thank you!

Helpful tip for desktop users! 🛟
One important note on using the Global and National table on your desktop: to see the complete profile for a species, click the + icon next to its Latin name. This expands the entries, revealing additional details.

It is especially helpful for species with National conservation statuses, since they can carry both a global assessment and a separate national conservation status tied to a specific country; the "+" is how you will see the country.

What comes next? 🤔
We are not stopping here! Translated versions of the tables are on track to go live by January 1, 2027, a Table Tour is coming soon to help guide you through using the tables whether you’re on desktop or phone, and we are working on a Downloadable and Printable option for you.

Until we have the translated versions online, you are welcome to contact us for the previous version (January 1 – June 20, 2026) in Dutch, Russian, Croatian, Greek, Italian and German. [email protected]

Take a look, explore, and let us know what you think! 🧑‍💻

Explore the new Biannual List! You can visit Airmid's home page, click on "Get Involved", and then click on "Airmid Biannual List" OR access it at: https://airmidinstitute.org/biannual-list/

06/20/2026

Airmid Institute is thrilled to be part of the conversation at ScentFest SF, taking place June 26–28 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. 👃🏼💚

This three-day celebration of fragrance brings together perfumers, industry professionals, conservationists, and scent enthusiasts from around the world for panels, tastings, and immersive olfactory experiences, and this year's programming reflects a growing commitment to sustainability, cultural storytelling, and the future of perfumery.

On Sunday, June 28, join our Founder and Executive Director Dr. Kelly M. Ablard for an Industry/VIP session:

"Conservation through Reconstruction: fantasy accords, eco partnerships, and the future of perfumery".

Moderated by Mauricio Garcia (Herbcraft Perfumery), this panel brings together Kelly alongside Peggy Fieldler (Red List Project), Travis McIntosh (Perfumer's Apprentice), and Dannielle Sergent (Cognoscenti) to explore how the fragrance industry can move toward a future rooted in ecological integrity, from sustainably sourced botanical ingredients to conservation-forward partnerships that protect the plants behind our most beloved scents.

At Airmid Institute, this work is at the heart of everything we do. Medicinal and aromatic plants are not just raw materials, they are living members of complex ecosystems with cultural, ecological, and economic significance. Conversations like this one are essential to building a fragrance industry that gives back as much as it takes.

We hope to see you there!

Register now at the link below and join us in San Francisco for what promises to be an extraordinary few days for the fragrance community.

Register for ScentFest SF 2026: https://tinyurl.com/6ey48hh9

Airmid Institute

08/24/2026

08/19/2026

08/11/2026

08/05/2026

08/04/2026

07/31/2026

07/24/2026

07/14/2026

07/02/2026

06/20/2026

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Organization

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request