DIWPA: DIVERSITAS in the Western Pacific and Asia

March, 2018

DIWPA News Letter
Office: Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Otsu, Japan

No.38

Message from the Chairpersonw

the 2nd symposium. At that time, we decided the main
theme “Ecology in a new generation: Interdisciplinary
approach to biodiversity”. In the symposium, we
had two plenary talks by Prof. Takashi Saito (former
president of Ecological Society of Japan), Hokkaido
University and Prof. Kim Jae Geun (present presidentof Ecological Society of Korea), Seoul National
University, and each six Japanese and South Korean
young researchers gave talks. For more detail, please
visit to the following URL:http://www.ecology.kyoto-u.
ac.jp/download/2ndCER-NIE20171209poster.pdf
S ome NIE researchers gave talks about IPBES(Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) because NIE isthe responsible organization for IPBES in South Korea,
whereas speakers from Japan gave talks about basic
ecology, interestingly.
We CER and NIE will hold one more symposium
at the 8th congress of the East Asian Federation of
Ecological Societies (EAFES) in Nagoya, Japan, from
April 21 to 23, 2018. Further information is available
at URL: http://www.e-eafes.org/EAFES/2018/
In addition, I attended 9th Workshop of Asia-Pacific
Biodiversity Observation Network (AP-BON) heldfrom February 21 to 22, 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand. I
will continuously provide a report to you.

e Center for Ecological Research(CER) and National Instituteof Ecology, South Korea (NIE) heldthe 2nd CER-NIE Joint Symposium
at Maskawa Hall, Kyoto University
on December 9, 2017. NIE and CERhave concluded the Memorandumof Understanding for Academic andShin-ichi Nakano
Research Cooperation for our new
partnership in 2016. As the first step, we held the 1st
symposium at NIE and enjoyed excellent talks byprofessors and/or researchers from both institutions.
After the symposium, we CER have successfullyacquired financial support as an additional management
expenses grant to CER to hold a next symposium
in Japan. There were two requirements by KU:
the first, the grant should be used for encouraging
young researchers (graduate students and post-docs)
to make something international; the second, CER
had to collaborate with other institutions of Kyoto
University. We CER asked Primate Research Institution(PRI) and Field Science and Education ResearchCenter (FSERC) to collaborate for holding the joint
symposium with NIE. Some professors and graduate
students of those institutions visited NIE, and NIE andthose KU institutions had a fruitful discussion about

Message from the Secretary GeneralItransportation to the islands because there is no airport
in the Ogasawara islands. It takes 24 hours from Tokyo
Bay to the islands by the ship. The trip of the ship is
usually smooth in summer, but the ship sometimes
rolls and pitches in winter because of strong northwind. Because I conducted the IFBC in November,the ship rolled and pitched especially on the returntrip. The ship arrived to Tokyo Bay with a delay of
1 hour. On the next day, we visited the laboratory ofProf. Yoshikazu Shimizu (Komazawa University), who
has studied forest dynamics in the islands during 40
years. We could receive his lecture and conduct lively
discussions with him. The topic is mainly forest change
during the recent 40 years and the future change underglobal climate change. We had a good time with him.
I would like to express my appreciation to Professor
Marc Abrams and Professor Yoshikazu Shimizu.

nternational Field Biology Course(IFBC) was held in November,2017 at the Ogasawara (Bonin)
islands, locating in the subtropicalNorth Pacific Ocean about 1,000 km
south of Tokyo. We invited a young
researcher (a student of Ph.D. course)
Atsushi Ishida from Thailand. We are pleasured
to introduce her report of activities
in this newsletter. Her friend came to Japan fromThailand to attend the IFBC. Furthermore, a visiting
researcher (Prof. Marc Abrams) also attended the
IFBC, and I took a student in my laboratory. In thisIFBC, my student explained the principal of leaf gas
exchange measurements and his research topic toyoung researchers. This would be good experiences not
only for the young researchers from Thailand but also
for my student. A ship, Ogasawara-Maru, is the only

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DIWPA News Letter No.38

Report 1

DIWPA International Field Biology Course at Ogasawara
Islands in Japan on November 14-22, 2017
The companionship field biology trip: knowledge and opportunity to learn newacademic experience
Issara Phromma
Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University(Thailand)and nature of the Ogasawara Islands through the
IFBC. Ogasawara Islands are small oceanic islands,
located in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean
approximately 1,000 km south of Tokyo (27˚04’
N and 142˚23’ E). We stayed at the main island,
Chichi-jima with a total of 2,000 populations [1].
Chichi-jima covers an area of approximately 24
km2. The highest elevation is 318 m above the sea
level. The Ogasawara Islands were registered as
an UNESCO World Heritage Area because of theirincalculable natural value for the unique ecosystems
in 2011. I also attained useful knowledges. First,
Mr. Shin Matsuyama taught me how to use the LI6400 (a portable leaf gas exchange measurement
system). After that, I used the machine to study thephysiological ecology of photosynthesis at the leaf

Fig. 1. Chichi-jima islandI

am a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Science
Program. My research interests are in the areaof forest ecology, forest restoration and biodiversity.
Participation in 2017 DIWPA International Field
Biology Course (IFBC) at the Ogasawara islands
in Japan provided me great opportunities to explore
new environments and to meet new colleagues .
Besides enhancing my technical knowledge andskills on field biology and forest ecology, attending
the workshop helped broaden my visions theinteraction with colleagues. When I receive theemail to notify me that I am a winner of the IFBC
application, I was very excited of the opportunity
to learn and see parts of the world that I have neverstepped foot on. Because it was my first time goingto Japan.
At first, I was very excited about my long voyage
to Ogasawara Islands. It took 24 hours to travel by
ship from Tokyo to the Islands on Ogasawara-maru.
As a result of having sea-sickness in less than anhour after boarding and slept most of the time on
the ship. Chichi-jima Island, where the workshop
took place was very wonderful and peaceful place(Fig. 1). We were in a group of five people: Prof.
Atsushi Ishida, the Secretary General of DIWPA at
Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University;
Prof. Marc Abrams, Senior American researcher ofForest Ecology and Tree Physiology at School ofForest Resources, Pennsylvania State University;
Dr. Ananya Popradit, Varaya Alongkorn Rajabhat
University, Thailand; Mr. Shin Matsuyama, a Ph.D.
student at Kyoto University and I. They werefriendly and they went to great lengths to look after
my wellbeing. I had learned about history, people

Fig. 2. The mesurement of leaf gas exchange with LI-6400

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Report 1

Fig. 3. The mesurement of leaf water potential with a pressurechamberlevel (Fig. 2). It was difficult for me because it was
my first hands on experience with the machine.
Secondly, we examined leaf water potential witha pressure chamber by studying the dehydration
process of plants in 5 endemic species in the
Ogasawara Islands and compared the differences ofleaf water potential between daytime and night time.
Prof. Atsushi Ishida explained the measurement
procedures (Fig. 3), which all were new to me. I was
surprised and very excited to see the analysis andit sparked my interest in dehydration processes of
those endemic plant species. I was impressed with
the ingenious machine.
Thirdly, we had a field study in eco-physiology
of woody plants. I learned about of the usefulness oftree annual rings which Prof. Marc Abrams showedme how to identify the rings that represent tree
history and their environments (Fig. 4).
Fourthly, during the field trip I learned about
different forest ecosystems in the Ogasawara
National Park. They are vastly different from theforest in Thailand. The typical vegetation adapted todry climate, subtropical rainforest in cloud at highelevations and thin soil. The number of plant species
and the proportion of endemic species within theforest are high, making the plant communities on
the Islands very unique. I observed about six plant
species. Some are similar to what I saw in Thailand,
but the majorities, especially those endemic species
in Ogasawara Islands, are new for me. For example,
Lantana camara, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis,
Hibiscus tiliaceus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis,
Bougainvillea spectabilis, Pandanus boninensis etc.
Finally, I learned about forest conservation andnational park management by cutting trees alienFig. 5. The seed removal tools

tree species for conservation native species. People
use the seed removal tools on clothes and shoes
before entering National Park to prevent the spread
alien species (Fig. 5). I have never seen these toolsin Thailand. It helped me to better understand that
effective forest conservation needs technical forestry
knowledge. We visited Prof. Yoshikazu Shimizu at
Komazawa University on the last day of the trip.
He has studied forest dynamics for 40 years in theislands. He gave me ideas to develop my researchdata.
2017 DIWPA IFBC provided me opportunities tolearn new knowledge in Forest Science, to develop
my knowledge and to have useful discussions withother experts and participants. I gained valuable
experiences for my Ph.D. research. We shared ourexperiences to facilitate understanding, as wellas ways to conserve natural forest ecosystems.
Furthermore, it was a wonderful trip to Chichi-jimawith great foods and friendly companions. It was mypleasure to meet everyone who embarked on this trip
with me. I hope to visit Ogasawara Islands again to
study in depth about field biology, forest ecology,
forest restoration and biodiversity in the future.
Thank you very much again for giving me a chance
to join the 2017 DIWPA IFBC.
Reference
Ogasawara Village Population Vision (Japanese) (PDF).
March 2016. Retrieved 2017-09-08.

Fig. 4. A field study in Eco-physiology of woody plants

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Report 2
Present Status and Future Opportunity of Agar Cultivation in Bangladesh
Milon Chowdhury1, Md. Rostom Ali2*, Md. Daulat Hussain2, Atsushi Ishida3
1

Department of Biosystems and Machinery Engineering, Chungnam National University(Korea)2
Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University(Bangladesh)3
Center for Ecological Research (CER), Kyoto University(JAPAN)
Corresponding author: rustom412@yahoo.com

Introduction
Agarwood or aloeswood is a dark resinous heartwood
which forms in Aquilaria and Gyrinops trees (Blanchette2006), large evergreens native to Southeast Asia when they
become infected naturally or artificially. In the beginningof the infection, the heartwood is scentless, relatively lightand pale colored. However, with the passage of time, theinfection progresses and the tree produces a dark aromatic
resin, called agar or aloes. This aromatic resin has many
common names including gaharu, aguru, agar, oud, ude,ud, oodh, oode, jinkoh, jinko, Ch'Ing Kuei Hsiang, Ch'En
Hsiang, Chan Hsiang, Chi Ku Hsiang, Huang Shu Hsiang,kalambak, grindsanah, eaglewood and so on. It is a highpriced incense that is extremely rare. One of the main
reasons for the relative rarity and high cost of agar is the
reduction of the wild resource (Broad 1995). Since 1995,
Aquilaria malaccensis, the primary source of agar has
been listed as a threatened species by the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES 2005). At the end of 2004, all Aquilaria
species were listed as a threatened species. Though,a number of countries have excellent conservation of
Aquilaria species regarding that listing.
Agarwood is highly valued for its perfumery andmedicine properties. Both agarwood smoke and oil
are commonly used as a perfume in the Middle East
(Chakrabarty et al. 1994). Agarwood incense is burned to
produce a pleasant aroma, which is used ranging from ageneral perfume to an element of an important religious

occasion. Taiwanese consumers use agar incense sticks inprayers during many traditional festivals and ceremonies tobring safety and good luck (TRAFFIC East Asia-Taipei, inlitt. To TRAFFIC International 1, May 2, 2000). In Japan,
it is considered as sacred and used to anoint the deadbody. It is more expensive than gold (Japan Talk, August
26, 2012). In Buddhism, it serves as a major ingredient inmany incense mixtures, and it is considered to be one of
the three integral incenses, together with sandalwood andcloves (Barden et al. 2000). Although several commercial
synthetic agarwood fragrance compounds are available,
they can produce only low-quality fragrances, owing to
the chemical structure of natural agar oil (Van Beek andPhillips 1999). Agarwood incenses have also been used asa fragrance in soaps and shampoos (Schippmann 2001).
Besides perfume, Agarwood has been used for medicinal
purposes for thousands of years, and continues to be usedin Ayurvedic, Tibetan and traditional East Asian medicine(Chakrabarty et al. 1994 and Fratkin 1994). High-grade
agarwood powder is used for aromatherapy (Lafrankie
1994), and also used in the production of pharmaceuticaltinctures (Van Beek and Phillips 1999). It is prescribedin traditional East Asian medicine to promote the flow ofqi, relieve pain, arrest vomiting by warming the stomach,and to relieve asthma (Hajar 2013). Burkill reported
that Malaysians used agarwood mixed with coconut oil
as a liniment, and also in a boiled concoction to treat
rheumatism and other body pain (Burkill 1966).
Agar remains the world's most expensive natural raw

Mother plant for BRAC agarwood plantation at Colonel’s garden‘Sirgasia’ nursery in 60%-40% shade

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Report 2materials today. It is sold in the form of woodchips, woodpieces, powder, dust, oil, incense ingredients and perfume
for several thousand US dollars per kilogram (Lafrankie
1994, Barden et al. 2000, Gunn et al. 2004 and Compton2007). Agarwood chips start at US$30 per kg up to $9,000
per kg depending on its resin percentage (Babatunde2015). Agarwood oil fetches similarly high prices(Agarwood “Wood of Gods” International Conference2003). The highest grade agar oil is produced in China
and is reported to cost over Tk.0.9 million (US$11,500)
per kg. The second-best quality agar oil is sourced from
Vietnam (Rahman et al. 2015). When agarwood chips
are processed into oil, the agarwood oil was sold at
US$30,000 per kg (Nanyang Siang Pau August 15, 2005).
A whole range of qualities and products are on the market,
varying in quality with geographical location, botanicalspecies, the age of the specific tree, inoculation method
and the section of the tree where the piece of agarwood
stems from (Jung 2011). The value of agarwood shippedout of Singapore alone each year has been estimated to
exceed US$1.2 billion (Hansen 2000). The current global
market for agar oil and other related agarwood products
is estimated to be in the range of US$6 to 8 billion (Akter
et al. 2013) and the major industry buyer of agar oil, is
expected to exceed US$36 billion in 2017 (http://www.
ouddh.com/?C =2065877).
Recently, near about 300 agar-based enterprises
producing agar chips, agar oil and agar related productsin Bangladesh (Rahman et al. 2015). Around 25,000 to
30,000 workers are involved in agar cultivation, collection,
processing, and agar-based products marketing throughout
the country (Baksha et al. 2009), which might be muchhigher in the future. The net annual return from an agarbased enterprises is BDT0.8 million. Using local raw
materials, indigenous inoculation methods and harvesting
technology, they are exporting about BDT5.00 million
to BDT100 million per year (Stakeholders consultation
meeting, SME Foundation 2013). But there are no official
data about agar oil or agar products exporting from
Bangladesh and the entrepreneurs used to carry agar
wood and agar oil in their hand bags to Dubai or Mumbai(major regional markets) to sale in cash. Because of its
attractive financial contribution, Aquilaria trees are being
planted both in the government-owned forest sites and in
privately-owned homestead forests of Bangladesh which
also plays a vital role in biodiversity conservation. As agar
is a highly priced non-timber forest product, we have toensure its quality and market. Otherwise, we will lose thispotential productive sector. Keeping above in view, theobjective of the study is to review the present status andfuture opportunity of agar cultivation in Bangladesh.
History of agar in Asia and Bangladesh
Agarwood is also known as the ‘Wood of the Gods’
which has at least a 3,000-year history in the Middle
East, Japan and China (Le 2003). There are referencesof agar in many ancient and religious literatures. It is an
essential part of culture and religious activities of Hindus,
Buddhists, Muslim, Christians, Taos, Sufis and so on.
The word ‘aloes’ has been mentioned several times in
the Old Testament of Christians. As early as the third
century A.D. in ancient China, the chronicle Nan zhou yi
wu zhi written by Wa Zhen of the Eastern Wu Dynasty
mentioned agarwood produced in the Rinan commandery(now Central Vietnam), and how people collected it in
the mountains. During the sixth century A.D. in Japan, in
the recordings of the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan),agarwood was mentioned as a fragrant wood. In the Nara
period (710-794 A.D.), agarwood was incorporated into
State ceremonies and Imperial Court functions, which wasa tradition continued until the Meiji Restoration (1868)(Morita 1992). It was also mentioned in the 8th-century
tomes of Shahin Muslims.
In the 17th century, agarwood production was started
in the Suzanagar union under Barolekha Upazila of
Moulvibazar district in Bangladesh (Abdin 2014). In thattime, it was forest-based only, but due to limited access,social cultivation of Aqularia tree was started in thehousehold lands. As a result production of best quality
natural agarwood became a time-consuming process.
Therefore, artificial inoculation (nailing) was introducedin the young Aqularia trees. Currently, agar farmers

Agar plantation at Sylhet

Agar plantation at Madhupur

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Report 2
are using trees from their own cultivated gardens. An
Aquilaria tree takes 12-15 years to produce agar. About
8-10 years old tree are being selected for ironing (putting
iron nails). About 100 to 150 kg iron rod is required forironing a medium size agarwood tree. It took about 3-4
years to accumulate agar resin around the nails.

based secondary products for several decades (Alam
2004, Uddin et al. 2008, Islam 2013 and Chowdhury et al.
2016).
Initially, BRAC Tea Estate plans to plant 50 acres ofland with agar plant, after 12 years of which agarwood
harvesting would take place. Assuming 90% survival rateand 2 kg premium quality agarwood production per plant,
the estimated investment related to plantation would be$1.82 million and total return would be $761.34 million
with the rate of return 41.9% (Akter and Neelim 2008).

Present agar plantation status in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has suitable weather and huge abandon
hilly land for agar cultivation. The Bangladesh Forest
Research Institution (BFRI) has established 2.3 ha ofexperimental agar plantations at Charaljani and Keochia
research stations in Chittagong. Bangladesh Forest
Department (BFD) has established several hectares ofagar plantations sporadically in denuded and encroachedforest areas throughout the country, especially in Borduara(Satkania, Chittagong), Rangamati, Khagrachari,Bandarban hill tracks, Harbang and Fasiakhali (Chakaria,
Cox’sBazar) districts including 785 ha in Sylhet forest
division (Hossen and Hossain 2016). In 2004 Karnafulitea estate planted agar covering 1.56 acres with 426
plants. Later, in collaboration with Research and
Evaluation Division, BRAC (Bangladesh Rehabilitation
Assistance Committee) Tea Estate started an agar
plantation project at Kaiyachara Tea Estate, Fatikchari inJuly 2007. They established two gardens for growing andnurturing agar (Aquilaria malaccensis) seedlings and one
for plantation. BRAC Tea Estate Kaiyachara division has
planted 83,400 agar seedlings covering 17 acres of land
between August and October 2007 (Akter and Neelim2008). 95% of seedlings have been sustained. Besides
about 700,000 agar seedlings have been planted in two
nurseries, namely ‘Kaiya’ and ‘Sirgasia’, at Kaiyachara tea
estate. And furthermore, there are some privately-owned
agar plantations in Modhupur (Mymensingh), Birisiri,
Haluaghat (Netrokona), Sylhet, Habiganj and particularly
in Maulvibazar district where many families have been
engaged in production and marketing of agar and agar-

aAgar plantation managements
Among fifteen species of the genus, Aquilaria andeight are familiar to produce agarwood (Ng et al. 1997).
Currently, A. malaccensis, A. agallocha and A. secundaria
are the main species for agar cultivation (Broad 1995).
In Bangladesh, Aquilaria malaccensis (Alam 2004 andChowdhury et al. 2016), Aquilaria agallocha (Bhuiyan
et al. 2009 and Rahman et al. 2015) are commonly
cultivated. Agar trees were planted in monoculture andblock plantations. 75% of the plantations have been
established on degraded land as well as denuded hills andrest 25% were established at the homesteads of farmers(Rahman et al. 2015). Most of the farmers have an own
nursery for raising agar seedlings and others obtained fromoutside. Before planting seedlings, sites were cleaned,standard-size pits were dug at a spacing of 2 m×2 m
and after placing 1.5-2.0 kg of cowdung, each pit was left
abandoned for at least 15 days. Few farmers use inorganic
fertilizers during plantation establishment. One-year-old
seedling usually planted in April or May. Weeding, themost frequently applied operation, intensively carriedout in the first 3 years. Some farmers give stakes forsupporting but mostly considered that staking would
hamper the natural strength of the seedlings. To reducewater loss, mulch was frequently applied at the bottom ofagar plants. Organic, inorganic fertilizers and pesticides
were applied to promote growth and protect agar treescbFig. 1. Artificial inoculation (a) Nailing (b) Fungi-Inoculation (c) Agar-wit (Liu et al. 2013)

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Report 2awater transpiration pull, the inoculant was transported
from root to branch within a short period of time andconsequently started internal wounds (Zhang et al. 2012).
The final agar-products via fungal or agar-wit method isvery good. The market value is very high and selling iseasy to international market (Fig. 1).
In the past, raw materials were imported from theneighbor and foreign countries. But it decreased sharply
and now stopped entirely with the passage of time. About
70% of the enterprise collect raw materials from agar
farmers and rest from their own plantations (Rahman etal. 2015).
There are two processing mechanisms, water
distillation and steam distillation for agar oil extraction.
In water distillation method, agar woodchips are soaked
in water for 4-5 days and charged into the boiler. Eachbatch consists of 8-12 kg of agar chips and 80 liters ofwater. The boiler is heated slowly for 3 days and steam
containing the aromatic molecules is captured andcondensed where the oil floats to the top of the distilledwater (Alam 2004). High temperatures sometimes destroy
the most delicate fragrance molecules, needs large
amounts of raw material and consume more times, thismethod is followed commonly for extracting and isolating
the agar oil (Fig. 2).

bFig. 2. Agar production system in Bangladesh (a) Workers are
separating dark-colored heartwood from agar tree (b) Agar oilprocessing unit (Rahman et al. 2015)

from leaf sucker insects, respectively. Pruning was usually
done only once a year preferably in the end of May, fromthe third to fifth or sixth year after out planting. Thinning
is very rare. Sometimes fencing was used to protect
seedlings from cattle and other disturbances.
Inducing methods
Aquilaria has a unique composition of phloem bundles
within xylem. This network of phloem and parenchyma
produce and distribute the resin around the injured area
to recover the wounds (Blanchette and Van Beek 2005).
This accumulated resin is known as agar. Only 7% trees
are infected naturally (Ng et al. 1997) by ant, snails or
fungus and mostly obtained at the junctures of broken
branches (Gauthier et al. 2015). Natural fungal infected
plants produce best quality agar whereas inferior quality
agar is the result of artificial inoculation (Bhuiyan et al.
2009). Though there are several artificial inoculation
methods, in Bangladesh agar farmers practice only ironnailing. Low cost, easy insertion, and local availability
are the main reasons behind this practice. Farmers
recommend nailing when trees reached 6 to 7 years ofage. Nails are hammered in the whole tree (up to 10
cm diameter of the top) at a spacing of 2.5-3.5 cm. The
length of iron nail varies from 5 to 15 cm depending on
the diameter of the tree. After 3 to 5 years of nailing, thetrees became ready for harvesting and the best time for
harvesting is mid-October to mid-March (Chowdhury
et al. 2016 and Rahman et al. 2015). Beside this drilling(Blanchette 2006), Aeration (Chowdhury et al. 2017 andLiu et al. 2013), Burning-Chisel-Drilling (Chowdhury et
al. 2016 and Zhang et al. 2014) and Fungi-Inoculation
methods (Beek and Phillips 1999) are also used for
producing agarwood. Nowadays, Fungi-Inoculation
method (Oldfield et al. 1998) is becoming popular. Resinproduction could be increased due to fungal infection as
the host response very first to minimize the fungal growthdamage. Aspergillus spp., Botryodyplodia spp., Diplodia
spp., Fusarium bulbiferum, F. laterium, F. oxysporum, F.
solani, Penicillium spp. and Pythium spp. could easily
infect agar trees (Chowdhury et al. 2016, Soehartono andMardiastuti 1997 and Wiriadinata 1995). When liquid
fungal solution were inoculated with liquid rihizopus spp.
inoculants into the agar tree gives very good agarwood
within three month and this condition usually kept for two
years. Agar-wit is also a similar method where inoculant
liquid was injected through a transfusion set. Because of

Financial analysis of agar cultivation
The cost of agar cultivation combined with overhead
and operating expenses. Overhead cost items are site
clearing, pit making, seedling production and fencing.
Operating costs are the summation of land rent, fertilizing,weeding, pruning, purchase, application of pesticides andartificial tree wounding. A relatively high cost is involved
at the beginning of agar production and when artificial
wounding is carried out. During the first 5-7 years, farmers
could get a negative return but after the 10-12 years ofcultivation, return starts. If the tree is left in the field forsome more years then the net return would be higher. Agartrees could be grown in mono-cropping or multi-cropping
systems along with companion commercial crops garden.
All kind of vegetables, banana (Musa spp.), pineapple(Ananas comosus), papaya (Carica papaya) might beplanted as an intercrop in the multi-cropping system ofagar cultivation. The total expenditure for agar cultivation
up to the rotation period (12 years) is BDT1.2 million
per ha and the total return is Tk.6.1 million per ha. So net
profit is BDT4.9 million (Rahman et al. 2015).
On an average, every enterprise uses 600 kg to 4 metrictons agarwood for producing 0.74-5.75 kg agar oil where
production cost and total returns are BDT0.5 million and
BDT1.3 million, respectively (Rahman et al. 2015) with a
net profit of BDT0.8 million.
Marketing of agar-based products
Two kinds of raw agarwood marketing system exist in
the agar cultivation area. One involves selling agar trees
before artificial wounding by agreement and other is direct
selling to the agar-based enterprise owner after harvesting.
Sometimes middlemen interfere in the both cases. About

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Report 2
64% of farmers sell their agar trees directly and remaining
36% takes help of middlemen for selling to the enterpriseowner with the either before or after artificial wounding
where the middlemen take around 5% of the total price for
their involvement (Rahman et al. 2015).
After processing agar oil, about 80% of the enterpriseowners sold agar oil directly to the exporters who havebusiness licenses for trading agar oil, where rest 20%
resort to the middlemen or close relatives living in theexport countries and having skill in international trading.

Most of the workers (88%) involved in Bangladeshi
agar enterprises were hired by the enterprise owner.
Among them, 10% has no educational knowledge andrest has completed the primary school level only. About
53% workers are unskilled, no scientific knowledge of
production (Rahman et al. 2015). Due to lack of training
and diversification knowledge, Bangladeshi agarwood
sector is producing only three items namely; agarwood
chips, agar oil and agarwood powder/dust wherecompetitors like Malaysia, India, Indonesia and so on are
producing eight or more items.
Bangladesh government has been officially declaredagar production as an industrial sector in 2014. But theabsence of an efficient marketing and pricing system
is depriving agar farmers and agar-based enterprises ofgetting the equitable price. Due to lack of contemporary
price information of different markets, forest-based
enterprises do not receive high prices for their products(Rahman et al. 2010). Poor communication andtransportation facilities, highly segregated markets andunequal bargaining powers between buyers and sellers
make the field more favorable for the middleman (FAO
1995). If government specially consider this industrial
sector and take policies like Industrial Policy, Import
Policy, Export Policy, Investment policy, SME Loan
Policy and so on, agar farming will be one of the major
foreign currency earning sectors of Bangladesh. DutyFree and Quota-Free (DFQF) market access will also help
to reach that goal.
According to the U.N. and FAO, only 11.1% or about
1.442 million ha of Bangladesh is forested. Between 1990 to
2010, Bangladesh lost an average 2,600 ha or 0.17% per year
which is still continued (http://rainforests.mongabay.com/
deforestation/2000/Bangladesh.htm). Deforestation andforest degradation are one of the major causes of global
warming. This degraded forest areas, especially hilly
lands give opportunities to replant valuable species. Large
scale Aquilaria tree plantation would be initiated on thisland because of the wide adaptability of Aquilaria. It will
help in carbon sequestration as well as protection of agar
trees from extinction (biodiversity conservation).

Constraints in agar plantation management andmarketing
Inadequate capital is the main constraint in every stepof agar production. Inadequate high quality seedlings,
high investment for artificial wounding, lack of modern
technology and high cost of fuel for agar processing,absence of an appropriate pricing system, inadequate
support for damage recovery and over all technicalsupport for plantation management from government
agencies or non-governmental organizations are thecommon obstacles to the progress of this potential
productive sector. Sometimes scarcity of raw materials
and problems associated with international marketing,including involvement of middlemen are other major
constraints for this growing up sector. Abdin tried to findout some barriers toward the development of Bangladesh
agarwood industry (Abdin 2014).
Future opportunities and challenges
Despite several major limitations, agar-based
enterprises are increasing day by day. In 2009, about 100
listed agar-based enterprises were located in Moulvibazar
district of Bangladesh (SME Foundation 2013). But
the number of enterprises has been touched 300 within
next 4-5 years (Rahman et al. 2015). This increasing
number of agar enterprises had created new employment
opportunities for rural people which are playing a vitalrole in improving livelihoods in those areas.
Artificial wounding helps to stimulate oleoresin
in Aquilaria trees (Beek and Phillips 1999) and there
are several artificial wounding methods namely
nailing, drilling, aeration, agar-wit, fungi-inoculation,
burning-chisel-drilling, partly-trunk-pruning and soon (Chowdhury et al. 2016). In Bangladesh, farmers
usually practice nailing method as a means of artificial
wounding. Similar wounding is also very common inIndia, especially among the traditional growers (Saikia
et al. 2012). Nevertheless, this method does not show
productive results and the produced yield is inferior
quality (Persoon 2007). Several scientific methods for
artificial wounding have already been developed throughsuccessful experiments. Fungi-Inoculation (Oldfield etal. 1998), Aeration (Blanchette 2006) and Agar-Wit (Liuet al. 2013) are remarkable of those which produce 4–28
times higher yield as from existing agarwood wounding
method. Agar farmers are not aware of these newtechniques. If they adapt these methods, they would get
more profit from this sector.

Conclusion
Agar farming provides bi-directional environmental
benefits, carbon sequestration and biodiversity
conservation. Agar plantations and agar-based enterprises
brought financial solvency of agar production areas. It
is a growing economic sector. However, unskilled anddetached management and marketing were identified as
constraints to get full financial and environmental benefits.
Skilled communication management can encourage
the production and enhance financial viability. Lowcost scientific artificial wounding techniques are now ademand of time for superior quality agar production. The
Government of Bangladesh can take suitable policies to
uplift this sector and Non-governmental organizations
can provide proper training in agar farming and agar
processing. The government can also directly handle
the middlemen issue and develop a duty-free and quota-

8

DIWPA News Letter No.38

Report 2
Gunn B., Stevens P., Singadan M., Sunari L. and Chatterton P. 2003.
Eaglewood in Papua New Guinea. Resource Management in AsiaPacific (RMAP), Working Paper No. 51. First International Agarwood
Conference: 1-15. Tropical Rainforest Project, Viet Nam.
Hajar A. 2013. Medical and other uses of Oudh, In Agarwood. The Most
Expensive Wood Fragrance.
Hansen E. 2000. The hidden history of a scented wood. Saudi Aramco
World 51: 1-13.
Hossen S. and Hossain M.K. 2016. Initial growth performance of agar
(Aquilaria malaccensis) plantations at public and private sectors in
Bangladesh. Journal of Bioscience and Agriculture Research 10: 871876.
Islam M.A. 2013. Development of Low Cost Agar Essential Oil
Extraction System Suitable for Agar Tree Growers in Bangladesh.
M.S thesis. Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh.
Jung D. 2011. The Value of Agarwood. Reflections Upon Its Useand History in South Yemen. Universitätsbibliothel, Universität
Heidelberg, 30 May 2011, (PDF) p. 4.
LaFrankie J.V. 1994. Population dynamics of some tropical trees thatyield non timber forest products. Economic Botany 48: 301-309.
Le C.K. 2003. History and ecology of agarwood in Vietnam,
Proceedings of the 1st International Agarwood Conference. The
Tropical Rainforest Project.
Liu Y., Chen H., Yang Y., Zhang Z., Wei J., Meng H. and Gao Z. 2013.
Whole-tree agarwood-inducing technique: an efficient novel techniquefor producing high-quality agarwood in cultivated Aquilaria sinensis
trees. Molecules 18: 3086-3106.
Morita K. 1992. The Use and Trade of Agarwood in Japan. Published by
the CITES Secretariat. PC15 Inf. 6. undated.
Ng L.T., Chang Y.S. and Kadir A.A. 1997. A review on agar (gaharu)
producing Aquilaria species. Tropical Forest Products 2: 272-285.
Oldfield S., Lusty C. and MacKinven A. 1998. The Word List of
Threatened Trees. World Conservation Press, Cambridge, UK.
Persoon G.A. 2007. Agarwood: the life of a wounded tree. IIAS
Newsletter 45: 24-25.
Rahman M., Nath N.M., Sarker S. Adnan M. and Islam M. 2015.
Management and Economic Aspects of Growing Aquilaria agallocha
Roxb. in Bangladesh. Small-scale forestry 14: 459-478.
Rahman M., Rahman M.M. and Islam M. 2009. Financial viability andconservation role of betel leaf based agroforestry: an indigenous
hill farming system of Khasia community in Bangladesh. Journal ofForestry Research 20: 131-136.
Saikia M., Shrivastava K. and Shing S.S. 2012. An efficient protocol for
callus induction in Aquilaria. Malaccensis Lam. using leaf explants
at varied concentration of sucrose. International Journal of Plant
Research 2: 188–194.
Schippmann U. 2001. Medicinal Plants Significant Trade Study: CITES
Project S-109, Plants Committee Document, PC9 9.1. 3 (rev.). BfN.
Uddin M.S., Mukul S.A., Khan M.A.S.A., Alamgir M., Harun M.Y. andAlam M.S. 2008. Small-scale Agar (Aquilaria agallocha Roxb.) based
cottage enterprises in Maulvibazar district of Bangladesh: production,marketing and potential contribution to rural development. Smallscale forestry 7: 139–149.
Van Beek H.H. and Phillips D. 1999. Agarwood: Trade and CITES
implementation in Southeast Asia. Unpublished report prepared for
TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Malaysia.

free (DFQF) market access. Therefore if we can createawareness and flourish this sector, it would be one of the
major sources for earning foreign currency and boost up
the export figure of Bangladesh.
References
Abdin M.J. 2014. The agar wood industry: yet to utilize in Bangladesh.
International Journal of Economics and Management Sciences 3: 163166.
Akter N. and Neelim A.Z. 2008. Agarwood plantation at BRAC Tea
Estate: introduction, environmental factors and financial analysis.
BRAC Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Akter S., Islam M.T., Zulkefeli M. and Khan S.I. 2013. Agarwood
production-a multidisciplinary field to be explored in Bangladesh.
International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences 2: 22-32.
Alam S.M. 2004. Production, processing and economic aspects of Agartree (Aquilaria malaccensis) as an agroforestry species in Maulvibazar
district of Bangladesh. M.S thesis. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, Bangladesh.
Babatunde O.J. 2015. Oud: Arabia's traditional scent. Masterpiece 003:
52-53. Available at: http://www.masterpiece-ng.com.
Baksha M.W., Akhter. S., Basak A.C. and Rahman M.S. 2009.
Bangladesh agar chas o agar kutir silpo (Agar cultivation and agar
cottage industry in Bangladesh). Bangladesh Forest Research Institute,
Chittagong, p. 20 (a booklet in Bangla).
Barden A., Anak N.A., Mulliken T. and Song M. 2000. Heart of the
Matter: Agarwood Use and Trade and Cites Implementation for
Aquilaria Malaccensis. Traffic International. Cambridge, England.
Beek Heuveling van H and Phillips D. 1999. Agarwood: Trade and
CITES implementation in Southeast Asia. Unpublished report
prepared for TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Malaysia.
Bhuiyan M.N.I., Begum J. and Bhuiyan M.N.H. 2009. Analysis ofessential oil of eaglewood tree (Aquilariaagallocha Roxb.) bygas chromatography mass spectrometry. Bangladesh Jounal of
Pharmacology 4: 24–28.
Blanchette R.A. 2006. Cultivated Agarwood -Training programs
and Research in Papua New Guinea. Forest Pathology and Wood
Microbiology Research Laboratory, Department of Plant Pathology,
University of Minnesota.
Blanchette R.A., Jurgens J.A. and Van Beek H.H. 2014. Growing
Aquilaria and Production of Agarwood in Hill Agro-ecosystems.
Broad S. 1995. Agarwood harvesting in Vietnam. TRAFFIC Bulletin 15:
96.
Burkill I.H. 1966. A Dictionary of Economic Products of the Malay
Peninsula. The Ministry of Agricultural and Cooperatives, Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
Chakrabarty K., Kumar A. and Menon V. 1994. Trade in agar tree. p. 51,
TRAFFIC India and WWF-India, New Deli, India.
Chowdhury M., Hussain M.D., Chung S., Kabir E. and Rahman A.
2016. Agarwood manufacturing: a multidisciplinary opportunity
for economy of Bangladesh - a review. Agricultural Engineering
International. CIGR Journal 18: 171-178.
Chowdhury M., Rahman A., Hussain M.D. and Kabir E. 2017. The
economic benefit of agarwood production through aeration method
into the Aquilaria malaccensis tree in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Journalof Agricultural Research 42: 191-196.
CITES 25 April 2005. Notification to the Parties No. 2005/0025. (PDF) .
Retrieved on 2013-07-22.
Compton J. 2007. Trade Matters: Regulating a Legal and Sustainable
Agarwood Industry. 2nd International Agarwood Conference andWorkshop. Bangkok and Koh Chang, Thailand.
Fratkin J. 1994. Chinese Herbal Patent Formulas: A Practical Guide.
Shya ublications. Colorado, U.S.A..
FAO 1995. National forestry action plan, Progress report No. 1 on
institutional development, New Delhi, India.

9

DIWPA News Letter No.38

New Site 1

Ashibetsu experimental site of REFRESH (Retention
Experiment for plantation FoREstry in Sorachi, Hokkaido),
Japan
Shigeho Sato

Hokkaido Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute(Japan)Forests in Hokkaido
Japanese forests are excessively harvested during
World War II and the postwar reconstruction. Many
degraded forests and natural forests were converted
to planted forests during 1950-1980, and most ofthem are currently at the commercial harvesting age.
Todo fir Abies sachalinensis is the most dominant
planted species in Hokkaido, the northernmost
island of Japan. Because of concern for the butt rot,
A. sachalinensis is not suitable for long rotation, so
immediate harvesting and regeneration is required.
Amid criticism for large-area clear-cutting, oldplanted forests have been regenerated by gap cut(<1 ha) in Hokkaido Prefectural Forest since 2000s.
However, due to large costs and efforts, more
effective operation which meets multiple functionsof forests is desired to manage large forests at theharvesting age.

Fig. 2. The map of experimental stands of Ashibetsu site

FoREstry in Sorachi, Hokkaido) project is thefirst experiment of retention forestry in Japan.
This project has started since 2013 using 6,000 ha
Hokkaido governmental forest located in Ashibetsu
city, Sorachi District, central part of Hokkaido(Fig. 1). It is carried out under the corporation of
Hokkaido Prefecture, Forestry and Forest Products
Research Institute, Hokkaido University andForestry Research Institute of Hokkaido Research
Organization.
Our objective is to illustrate the costs and benefitsof retention forestry with planted A. sachalinensis
forests.

Retention forestry and REFRESH project
Retention forestry (variable retention, green
tree retention) is one of the operation methods
that intend to maintain structural complexity byretaining old trees and snags at the time of harvest to
provide diverse habitats for organisms, and is widelypracticed on more than 150 million ha of boreal andtemperate forests.
REFRESH (Retention Experiment for plantation

Experimental treatments
In REFRESH project, three set of experimental
units were established in planted A. sachalinensis
that stood over 50 years within Hokkaido Prefectural
Forest in Ashibetsu site (Fig. 2). The location withthe highest altitude in this site is the Mt. Irumukep
which is 865 m above sea level, located N 43°37′45″,
E 142°06′37″ (Fig. 3).
Pre-treatment survey for the first set started in2013, and harvesting was carried out during 20142016. A. sachalinensis seedlings were planted inspring of the year after harvesting.
Eight treatments which include dispersed retention,
aggregated retention, gap cut, uncut natural standand uncut planted stand were operated in each set

Fig. 1. The location of Ashibetsu site of REFRESH project10

DIWPA News Letter No.38

New Site 1
Perspective
Retention forestry has been used and tested incomplex and diverse forests. REFRESH projectwill evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of using
retention forestry to restore its biodiversity andenhance ecosystem services in planted forests. We
aim to achieve the balance between ecological andeconomic values of planted forests.

aFig. 3. Mt.Irumukep and dispersed retention standb
Fig. 4. Treatments of experimental stands
CC: Clear cut, SS: Dispersed retention (10 trees/ha), SM:
Dispersed retention (50 trees/ha), SL: Dispersed retention(100 trees/ha), GR: Aggregated retention (0.36ha patch), SC:
Gap cut (1 ha each) (2nd and 3rd set only), NC: Uncut natural
broadleaved stands, PC: Uncut planted stands(Figs. 4 and 5). The area of each treatment was 5-9
ha. Dispersed retention were set in three different
density of remained broadleaved trees (10, 50 and
100 trees/ha).
As the objectives of retention were restoring
structures and elements of original natural forestsin the region, naturally-regenerated broadleaved
trees were remained in dispersed retention plots toconserve biodiversity of wildlife and insects. On
the other hand, planted Todo fir trees were remainedin aggregated retention plots expecting to conserve
understory plants.

c

Areas of Investigation
We measured harvesting productivity in eachplot during harvesting operations to compare
their efficiency. After harvesting and planting, wesurveyed vegetation (overstory trees and understory
plants), bird territory and saproxylic insects groundbeetles to evaluate its biodiversity. We further
investigated hydrology and ecosystem services invarious experimental plots.

Fig. 5. Experimental stands(a) Clear cut stand (b) Dispersed retention stand (c) Aggregatedretention stand11

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