Holistic Living
Sustainable Harvest:
The Preservation
of the Aquilaria Tree
by Elyssa Paige
Human exploitation of the earth’s natural resources is nothing new. In our quest for advancement, we’ve taken what we wanted, rendering countless plants and animals endangered or even extinct. Fortunately, we are now entering a new stage in our evolution in which we’re seeking a harmonious, rather than a parasitic, relationship with nature.
For thousands of years, people have been harvesting the resin derived from the Aquilaria tree found in tropical rainforests in parts of Asia. Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Taoists have burned this resinous wood during meditation and prayer. Known across the world as agarwood, aloeswood, eaglewood, jinkoh, and gaharu, this valuable incense has been so highly sought after in wild forests that the Aquilaria tree has been classified as endangered. Robert Blanchette, microbiologist and professor at the University of Minnesota, recently spoke with Vision Magazine about his work on The Agarwood Research Project in identifying a sustainable way to produce this incense on plantations without destroying old growth forests.
Vision Magazine: What inspired your work with the Aquilaria tree?
Robert Blanchette: The agarwood project has been a mystery for centuries that we wanted to solve. No one knew exactly which trees had the resin and which ones didn’t, so people indiscriminately cut old growth trees down looking for it. Most of these trees are gone because they’ve been exploited and over-harvested. We needed to discover a way to produce this resin and incense in a sustainable way using young plantation trees.
VM: How did you make this discovery?
RB: I work with microorganisms that affect trees and wood. We were working on post responses in trees to see how they defend themselves from attack. The acquilaria tree actually produces resin in response to invasion. We studied this mechanism in the tree and learned that we can naturally induce it so that we can produce the resin in young trees that are five to six years old, and mimic the natural process that occurs in trees that are 100 or 150 years old. We’ve shortened the time in young trees that are sustainably grown on plantations to create this very valuable and beautiful resin.
VM: Can you tell us a bit about the history of agarwood?
RB: The use of agarwood goes back thousands of years. It has been used in many parts of the world for cultural purposes, religious purposes, and for traditional medicine. It was shipped along the silk route. Agarwood is mentioned four times as “aloeswood” in the Bible, and we know that it was transported to the Middle East over two thousand years ago. There is also a very long history of its use in Japan in traditional incense ceremonies.
VM: How have new agarwood plantations helped indigenous people around the world?
RB: The high value of the material that is produced has the potential to help many people around the world. We now have plantations in Vietnam in which local farmers are growing the trees. We’ve transferred the technology of how to produce the resin to these farmers. We have also decided that we needed to have some sort of a market to quickly help the farmers get their products out to people and so we set up a company to do that.
VM: What do you see in the future for the sustainable production of agarwood?
RB: Well, this is the first sustainable production of agarwood in the world. Any other agarwood materials are actually not being produced in a sustainable way. They are most likely illegally cut and shipped from natural forests. This is really the first bona fide, sustainably produced agarwood. We’re hoping to have projects in many other countries, such as Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malaysia. We’re helping poor people where this material is grown and bringing it to the market so everyone can enjoy it.
VM: What are your thoughts on the changing landscapes here in America?
RB: I hope we are headed into a time period where people are more concerned about the environment. People now want to protect more open spaces, so we need to support conservation, whether it’s at a local level in our home communities, or at a national level.
VM: What is some advice you can give on how we can support conservation?
RB: In the case of agarwood incense production, most people don’t realize that the material they’ve been using comes from an endangered tree. I think that if people realized that, they would much rather prefer to have it produced in a sustainable way. In general, I think that people need to look at where their products are coming from and make sure that they are being produced in an ecologically sound way. We need to have a better view of how to protect the earth so that we can learn how to live in harmony with the environment in the future.
To learn more about the sustainable production of agarwood, visit
www.scentedmountain.com.