The trees are being hit by fires and droughts, which degrade soils and leave the trees vulnerable to blowing over in high winds, according to the Nature study. Seeds are gobbled up by goats and cattle. But the biggest culprit, however, is overexploitation. Until about 20 years ago, “the demand for frankincense was mostly from churches,” says Frans Bongers, professor of forest ecology and management at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Recently, however, this ancient resin has become a hot commodity globally as its alleged health benefits catch the attention of the wellness industry, a sector worth about $5.6tn a year. As more people extract the resin from a shrinking number of trees, the future of the species – and of local farmers – is under threat. One of the first warnings that frankincense was teetering towards extinction came in 2011: a study of Boswellia papyrifera in northern Ethiopia predicted that 90% of the trees could disappear by 2060. https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ca-arabia-western-wellness-industry-fragrance https://www.savefrankincense.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boswellia
