Fears over the fragile future of world famous rare tree

Yahoo

27-03-2025

Once a year, at Christmas, frankincense becomes one of the world's world's most talked about trees as it's presented during pageants to baby Jesus alongside gold and myrrh. So you might be wondering why it is we're talking about it in March.
Sadly, the reason has little to do with festivities and more to do with doom and gloom. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has updated its annual Red List of threatened plants and animals and revealed significant declines in several species of the tree, which is also known as Boswellia. The list now includes 169,420 species, of which 47,187 are threatened with extinction.
The assessment comes after an investigation across Socotra island in Yemen, which has the highest diversity of frankincense species per square kilometre in the world.
Resin from the trees was once one of the most valuable commodities in the world, and today its use is managed to avoid exploitation. But there are unforeseen threats that have emerged in recent years.
Due to changes in agricultural goat grazing, its saplings are being eaten before they reach maturity. While there's been goats on Socotra for thousands of years, over the last century, traditional small herding has been replaced with more profitable large-scale farming, and that's increased pressure on the trees.
But that's not the only problem, the weather is also changing. Between 2015 and 2018, the island was struck by intense cyclones, flash floods and landslides, which damaged and uprooted trees.
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Following the review, five species have been uplisted from vulnerable to endangered, and another has jumped from vulnerable to critically endangered. Three other species were assessed for the first time and the news was equally grim, with all being listed as critically endangered.
Local expert Mohammed Amer, who led the Red List assessment, said action from locals is needed to help protect the trees from extinction.
'Frankincense trees are very important to our culture on Socotra… Through building fences around young trees, local communities can protect them from goats, and produce frankincense honey for additional income,' he said.
"As extreme weather hits the island, local action is essential to secure the future of Socotra's frankincense trees."
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