Growing ‘The Wood of The Gods’: Agarwood Production in Southeast Asia - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 239

only temporary. Once the largest trees were cut, new harvesting expeditions became
less successful and just as in the case of gold, the collecting of small quantities of
agarwood became a less rewarding activity. This method of harvesting however has
lead to overexploitation of the resource, far beyond the reproductive ecology of the
Aquilaria trees (Soehartono and Newton 2001).
The high prices for agarwood and the local depletion of resources in the wild have
led to a variety of efforts to stimulate the growth of agarwood. Farmers started to
integrate Aquilaria trees into their home gardens as these trees can easily be inter-
cropped with other home garden tree species. Moreover the agarwood trees need lit-
tle care during the first few years. The trees have to grow first before the agarwood
formation can actually be started. These small holders use a variety of simple
wounding techniques to start this process. Farmers in countries such as Vietnam, Lao
DPR, Indonesia and India have gained some experience in the production of low
grade agarwood. Axe wounds, severe bark removal, nailing and other types of
wounding are being applied. These methods only yield small amounts of low quality
resin for a limited period and due to their low yield, these methods may also lead to
the destruction of trees. The most common method is the deliberate wounding of
trees with large knives or the hammering of nails into tree trunks. The agarwood
produced in this way is of inferior quality and can only used for home consumption,
and low quality agarwood. Moreover high quality agarwood takes many years to
develop and not many small holders are willing to wait that long.

12.5 Planting Aquilaria Trees for Agarwood Production

It is only during the last few decades that a more scientific approach has been devel-
oped to stimulate the cultivation of agarwood through artificial wounding of the trees.
Planting Aquilaria trees has become a common practice now at numerous localities.
In particular people who used to be gatherers of wild agarwood have started to grow
Aquilaria trees in their home gardens or in their forest fields experimenting with all
kinds of wounding techniques. More scientific experiments were set up by forest
research institutions in several countries including China, India, Thailand, Vietnam,
Bhutan, and Indonesia. In Indonesia for instance plantations are established in East
Kalimantan, Lombok, Sumba and Papua. In some of these areas relatively large scale
plantations are established with thousands of Aquilaria trees and substantial invest-
ments in processing units. In some cases these plantations developed out of small
holder initiatives while in others enterprising individuals with business interests were
attracted to the potentially high profits that can be made in agarwood production.

12.5.1 Agarwood Cultivation in Vietnam

One of the most successful efforts to date has been a project initiated in Vietnam.
Several independent research initiatives were started in the middle and late nineties
in Vietnam. One of these initiatives was The Rainforest Project Foundation's (TRP)