Growing ‘The Wood of The Gods’: Agarwood Production in Southeast Asia - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 235

In this chapter we want to discuss the economic importance of a particular
non-timber forest product, agarwood, that is harvested from the wild in the lowland
forests of Southeast Asia but is increasingly being produced in a domesticated way.
This domestication denies forest dwelling communities economic opportunities,
and real and potential value from the forest.
Agarwood is without doubt one of the most fascinating non-timber forest prod-
ucts in the world. It is the infected wood of the Aquilaria and Gyrinops species.
Agarwood is often called 'the Wood of the Gods' because of its use as incense for
religious ceremonies. Agarwood is in high demand in many countries and cultures.
As incense it is a product with an almost universal religious function as incense is
used to symbolize purification and to accompany sacrifices and prayers from earth
to heaven. Incense has pervaded religious history and agarwood incense is by far
the most expensive type of incense. It has been in use since ancient times. Egyptians
and Greeks are known to have used it for death rituals. But does this special reli-
gious function imply a special treatment of the tree in terms of production or
processing? Does it lead to special protective measures? And does the agarwood
producing tree enjoy a status as a 'sacred plant' or can it be used as an example of
a religiously inspired example of environmental care?

12.2 The World of Agarwood

Buddhist monks, Arabic perfumers, Japanese incense producers, Thai farmers and
Papuan collectors were just some of the cast at the 2nd International Agarwood
Conference (March 2007, Bangkok). Participants came from more than thirty coun-
tries. The 'world of science' was represented by wood pathologists, anthropolo-
gists, foresters, economists and laboratory analysts each with their specific research
interests. Alongside the scientists were entrepreneurs from Australia, potential
investors in the opportunities that Aquilaria plantations might offer. Finally there
were nature conservationists concerned with the survival of the tree species as
agarwood features on the CITES appendix II list. In total more than 120 people -
covering the full agarwood spectrum from production to consumption - came
together to discuss the future life of the infected wood of a wounded tree.
Over a period of one week they were all discussing the results of their research
and experiences. Visits to plantations, distillation factories and agarwood trading
companies completed the programme. Throughout the week there were fascinating
comparisons between the results of the laboratory experiments and the judgments
of traders who still rely heavily on the 'naked eye and nose' for determining the
grading the quality of agarwood. This stood in sharp contrast with the state of the
art scientific discovery in the fields of microbiology, bioreactor analysis and DNA
fingerprinting. Besides the plenary sessions, there were also discussions in small
circles about business secrets with respect to the best sources of agarwood, the art
of perfume design and incense making and the continuing illegal trade.