Growing ‘The Wood of The Gods’: Agarwood Production in Southeast Asia - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 241

In addition to laboratory analysis, field experiments were developed. Local inhabit-
ants in the An Giang Seven Mountain Area, including the Buddhist monks, had used
various simple wounding techniques for generations. They had used the agarwood for
personal and religious reasons for a very long period already. In the Central Highlands
of the country nails were applied to Aquilaria trees to induce agarwood growth.
The experiments were undertaken with local farmers and provincial authorities.
Building on their knowledge, experimental plots were developed to stimulate the
production of agarwood. The new technology to cultivate agarwood in plantations
was developed by a team of scientists at the University of Minnesota in the United
States (UMN) led by Professor Robert Blanchette and Henry Heuveling van Beek
of The Rainforest Project.
The Seven Mountain Area was a logical start for the project because of the
familiarity of the farmers with small scale agarwood production. Some farmers had
already started their small scale plantation even before the project had entered the
area. This area had suffered heavily from the invasion of the Khmer Rouges guerilla
before 1978. During that period thousands of Aquilaria trees were chopped down.
The political unrest and the resettlement of the inhabitants in the decades that fol-
lowed also negatively influenced the number of Aquilaira trees in this mountainous
borderland with Cambodia. Once the situation slowly returned back to normal
again, the monks and local people were faced with a shortage of agarwood for their
ritual and traditional purposes. That is why the initial response to the idea to pro-
mote the growth of Aquilaria trees was very positive. At the start of the project,
when it was proposed to initiate agarwood production on a larger scale, farmers
pointed to the lack of income during an estimated five to seven year inception
period. After that period farmers could start selling the first agarwood while
replanting would also take place at the same time. In order to stimulate the planting
of Aquilaria seedlings these were provided to farmers at no costs. During the first
few years of the project the farmers would receive a payment for their investments
on condition that they share the profit after harvesting. Four years after the start of
the project, and that was still before the first harvesting took place, about 25,000
Aquilaria seedlings were planted in the Seven Mountain Area (TRP 1999).
In the years that followed numerous technical experiments were done in order to
determine the optimal formation of agarwood. The experiments included the drill-
ing of holes in the trees and the insertion of different combinations of chemicals
and many different naturally occurring fungi into trees of varying age or size, density
and degree of intercropping. A chemical treatment was added to the wound to
encourage the trees defense mechanism which stimulates the production of the
resin. After years of experimenting, the first trees were recently harvested and the
production of incense made from the cultivated agarwood has begun. The success
of the experiment means it will not be long before the technology spreads to other
areas where Aquilaria trees are being grown.
Chemical analyses were conducted of the cultivated agarwood and these were
compared with the chemical composition of agarwood harvested from forests. In
the initial phase relatively good agarwood was produced after two years of wound-
ing and treatment but based on continuous evaluation and improvement of the