Growing ‘The Wood of The Gods’: Agarwood Production in Southeast Asia - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 246

this thorny trade domain. For some years the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has listed all Aquilaria spe-
cies in its Appendix II. This implies the need to monitor the trade (both import and
export) (Newton and Soehartono 2001). However, because agarwood is known
across the world by many different names (such as eaglewood, aloeswood, jinko ,
gaharu , and oudh ), and because it is used or even disguised in so many different
products (such as oil, perfumes, incense, wine, wood dust and chips), tracking
agarwood products requires highly sophisticated detection procedures which are
not yet in place in most countries. This is one of the reasons why the illegal trade
in agarwood cannot easily be stopped. One of the challenges ahead will be the dif-
ferentiation between wild and cultivated agarwood. Without doubt some of these
issues will be discussed during the next agarwood conference which will take place
in a few years time. During the recently held Conference of Parties to the CITES
convention (The Hague, 2-15 June, 2007) proposals were submitted through the
plants commission to differentiate between the wild and cultivated agarwood prod-
ucts, in a way similar to many other products (like for instance crocodile skins). In
this way export and import of cultivated agarwood products would become less
troublesome. However these proposals were not adopted by the parties because of
the lack of effective implementation methods.
12.7 Conclusion
It may come as a surprise to some that the chain of production to consumption of
agarwood, does not enjoy any special position along the way until its final destination.
It seems that it is only once agarwood has been turned into incense that it obtains a
special status as a product to be used in rituals with a symbolic meaning. Until that
moment it is devoid of any special relevance. It is just another object of trade and
profit making even though the trade itself is highly specialized and requires substan-
tial skills in terms of smelling, grading the quality and processing. The history of
exploitation of agarwood producing trees does not seem to be any different from any
other equally high valued but non-religious product. Resource extraction through an
ever moving frontier leading to over-exploitation dominates its history. It is highly
unlikely that this will change in the future in spite of some prevailing ideas to look
for religiously inspired caring for the environment (Palmer and Finlay 2003).
The rapidly diminishing agarwood harvests from the wild have stimulated the
production of agarwood through active tree planting and treatment by small holders
throughout South and Southeast Asia. Initially the people involved in this domesti-
cation process were the same as those involved in the harvesting from the wild. But
as domesticated agarwood is likely to become more important and more productive
it also attracts the attention of potential investors from a number of countries.
Plantations are already established in Thailand, India, Indonesia, Vietnam,
Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Malaysia and others (small scale but also in
Bhutan, China, Burma, etc.) Absolutely new on the scene are the business people