WE all know that our forests are at risk. Development, climate change and poaching have reduced them to sufficiently threatened levels to jeopardize our future (if not our present) sustainability.

Although we all understand the reasons for illegal logging – obtaining hardwood for construction like narra, molave, dungon, mangkono and other hardwood tree species that are expensive – few of them we know the most lucrative tree of all – agarwood. Known as lapnisan or lanete, agarwood belongs to the Aquilaria species of the Thymelaeceae family. There are many species of Aquilaria (19) and the only endemic to the Philippines is Aquilaria malaccensis. Collectively and colloquially, these species are known as agarwood or oud.

Agarwood is the most expensive tree in the world because its oil is used in perfumery and in the huge world market for flavors and fragrances. Its oil has a musky, sweet but defined scent that is very pleasant. It is used for both aesthetic and religious purposes as well as as a perfume. A kilogram of its wood can range from $100 to $100,000 depending on the quality of its heartwood, from which the oil is extracted. The oil itself sells for between $50,000 and $80,000 per liter.

The demand for agarwood and its oil has grown phenomenally since the 1970s, resulting in an estimated global trade of $6-8 billion. It is an ancient trade said to have started 3,000 years ago with the Egyptians who used its wood and oil for perfume, incense, carvings and funeral ceremonies. It was known as the “wood of the gods”. It was transported on the Silk Road between Asia and the Middle East. The Spaniards called it “madera de olor” (aromatic wood).

Needless to say, the demand has impacted the forests in South Asia and Southeast Asia where agarwood grows. There is an undefined market and an underground trade for which no authentic data is available. In the Philippines, there are periodic arrests of agarwood poachers. It is illegal to trade or cut agarwood trees here unless you have a permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and that is only granted for logging operations, not for picking in the wild. So far, the first to obtain permits and licenses in this country is Iba Botanicals led by Benjamin Warren Mead, an Australian investor with Filipino partners, Ernest Escaler’s Gourmet Farms and Luis Lorenzo Jr., a former secretary at Agriculture. Iba Botanicals grows agarwood trees in Zambales, Bukidnon, Cavite, Batangas, Cebu and Palawan through various arrangements. He also propagates seedlings and saplings which he sells to anyone interested in planting agarwood trees. And commit to buying them back at maturity (from 7 to 10 years).

In 1995, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – the world’s leading authority on endangered species – placed agarwood on its “red list”, which severely restricted international trade unless it comes from legal and sustainable plantation sources. This has led to coordinated efforts to curb illegal harvesting and poaching of agarwood as well as initiatives across Asia to establish legal planting sources of the highly sought-after product. India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia and others now have legally verified planting sources for agarwood. Although the most sought after species of agarwood – Aquilaria malaccensis – is grown in these countries, its native land is the Philippines. Yet we are among the last to participate in the lucrative plantation industry. Thanks to the initiative of Iba Botanicals, the Philippines will now be part of this global trade in a sustainable way.

What does an agarwood tree look like? It is an evergreen tree with a white trunk. It grows to about 40 meters and has a stem of 60 centimeters It actually produces white or light yellow wood. But not all agarwood trees are fragrant oil producers. To do this, the agarwood must be stressed by injuring it. In nature, stress usually comes in the form of fungal infection, insect infestation, and other natural enemies that attack the tree through wounds or holes made by one or the other. The strange thing is that an agarwood tree to be valuable because of its oil must have an infection to which the heartwood reacts by producing oil. A tree’s heartwood is found in the center of its stem. The most prized agarwood trees are diseased and malformed because their defense mechanism has produced a dark stain in its heartwood which contains the valuable agarwood oil. Wildlife poachers know this and drill into trees to stress them enough until they are ready to be harvested as oil-laden wood. Iba Botanicals will be more scientific and will bring a modern inoculation method from specialized laboratories which will indeed bring the stress necessary for the reaction of the heartwood producing oil. Otherwise, without stress mechanisms applied, less than 10% of agar trees will produce oil with natural stressors.

Agarwood oil and the wood also have medicinal properties that the ancients knew and used. Ayurvedic medicine has a place for them in its healing repertoire. Chinese medicine too. Our ethnic tribes surely know these properties.

I happened to see and hear my friend, Ernest Escaler, on television before the Christmas holidays touting agarwood trees and offering seedlings for sale. Intrigued, I bought three saplings and gave one to my daughter, one to a friend and one that I planted in my garden. I plan for a sustainable future. Agarwood trees are found in the jungles of Mindanao and the forests of Visayan. They generally like a moderate altitude and a relatively cool climate, but with proper care like in Zambales, Cavite, etc., they can grow into mature trees. They thrive in a wide range of soils, including poor sandy soils. By the way, Iba Botanicals is a laudable agricultural investment, focused on modernizing our agriculture and producing profitable cash crops. In Zambales, Iba Botanicals, in addition to agarwood farms, cultivates ilang ilang and vetiver, which also produce oils for the flavor and fragrance market. In Zambales alone, Iba Botanicals employs more than 200 Aetas.

Benjamin Mead came to the Philippines to grow plants for energy use. He learned of the existence of agarwood trees thanks to the setbacks of the DENR in pursuit of poachers who are illegally decimating their numbers in our forests. Luis “Cito” Lorenzo, Jr. is a former Secretary of Agriculture whose Mindanao-based family has always been involved in agriculture. Ernest Escaler owns a pioneering organic farm in Cavite and is also dedicated to coffee processing.

There are now a few agarwood tree farms but due to the decimation of agarwood trees, Iba Botanicals with DENR permits and licenses are offering agarwood trees to the public to grow and for resale to Iba Botanicals when mature (inoculation protocols will be available). It can be a profitable exercise to have a single tree carefully tended for its heartwood oil. Ernest estimates that 3 kilograms of heartwood with oil, the average harvested from an agarwood tree, would fetch $8,000 per kg. This industry is a plus everywhere – for the country, for the DENR, for Iba Botanicals, the Aetas in Zambales, the flavor and fragrance market and for the agarwood tree growers. And for Mother Nature.