Le bois d’aloès, « le Bois des Dieux »

Abstract

Agarwood, also called eaglewood, is a very important non-timber forest product from the rainforests of Southeast Asia. The infected wood of the Aquilaria sp. is widely used to produce incense for religious ceremonies or for pleasure but it can also be used for making perfumes or medicinal wine.Due to its high price, the harvesting of agarwood from the wild has brought the plant to the point of extinction in many areas in Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos and Malaysia. That is one of the reasons why this plant has been put on the CITES Appendix II list to monitor its exploitation and trade. At the same time efforts are undertaken to domesticate the plant and stimulate the production of the infected wood. As initial efforts seem to be successful, interested parties from other areas are eager to start growing Aquilaria trees at well.

Keywords

• agarwood
• eaglewood
• non-timber forest product
• Southeast Asia
• (over) exploitation
• domestication