Deep in the perfumed forests

In the Middle East and Asia lie the big markets for agarwood, valued for its aroma and used as a perfume (as also for medicinal, cultural and religious purposes). While in the forests of Southeast Asia, including Papua New Guinea, are the trees that yield this prized wood.

Guy Jowett, publications editor at the WWF-UK, takes us within the island's forests, considered the last frontier for substantial wild stocks of agarwood.

A repeated sharp knocking sound interrupts the busy chirrups, trills and cackles of a million insects and birds deep in the steamy, dense rainforest of Papua New Guinea. The disturbance comes not from an exotic, newly-discovered woodpecker, but from a machete being brought down on its target by Tony, a local from the East Sepik village of Pukapuki.

In a land once famed for its fearsome head-hunters, it's a relief to report that nowadays the machete-wielding hunters have recently found a rather different commodity to prize — agarwood.

Tony delivers a final blow, then holds aloft a rather unimpressive looking chunk of wood. It has been splintered from an equally unimposing tree — certainly unremarkable when compared to the towering forest that surrounds us. However, its discovery was greeted with great excitement.

But with the likes of gold, copper, oil and gas already discovered in Papua New Guinea (PNG), not to mention the vast timber resources, why is agarwood considered so important?

The sweet smell of resin
"What makes it so valuable is its smell," says WWF's sustainable resource use trainer Leo Sunari.

"When these trees are injured or infected — maybe by certain insects, maybe by other means, we're not too sure yet — they produce this dark resin in response."

The resin's long-lasting fragrance has made agarwood (also referred to as eaglewood and aloeswood, and more locally as gaharu) popular for thousands of years throughout Asia and the Middle East, where it's used for cultural, religious and medicinal purposes, and as a perfume. Worldwide sources are now dwindling, so its discovery in PNG in 1997 spurred intense harvesting.

"They were going crazy," Leo recalls. "The trees were being chopped down and the roots dug up, because that's where they thought the infection was most likely to be."

To curb the rate of destruction, WWF has been working with local communities in PNG — who own about 97 per cent of the land — offering workshops to help them map their land, predict where the agarwood trees are, and develop ways of managing their resources sustainably.

"As part of that work, we're teaching them how to extract the agarwood resin without killing the trees," adds Leo. "And, we're making sure they know its real value, so they're not ripped off by traders."

WWF is also helping communities designate certain regions as official wildlife management areas, which will help to protect them from being handed over as concessions to loggers and mining companies.

All in all, agarwood could provide a long-term sustainable livelihood for some of the poorest people in the country. It will also boost the survival prospects of the world's third largest remaining rainforest and all the wonders it contains.