Aquilaria malaccensis

Aquilaria malaccensis is a species of plant in the Thymelaeaceae family. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. It is threatened by habitat loss.[4]

Aquilaria malaccensis
Aquilaria malaccensis at Munnar

Critically Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malvales
Family: Thymelaeaceae
Genus: Aquilaria
Species:
A. malaccensis
Binomial name
Aquilaria malaccensis
Lam.
Synonyms

A. agallocha[2][3]
A. secundaria,[2][3]
A. malaccense'[3]
Agalochum malaccense[3]

The World List of Threatened Trees (Oldfield et al., 1998) listed Iran as one of the countries with a population of A. malaccensis, but an exploratory 2002 CITES review confirmed that Iran has no record of the species. As a result Iran is no longer considered as habitat for or producer of agarwood.[5]

Economics
Main article: Agarwood

Aquilaria malaccensis is the major source[6] of agarwood, a resinous heartwood, used for perfume and incense.[2] The resin is produced by the tree in response to infection by a parasitic ascomycetous mould, Phaeoacremonium parasitica,[7] a dematiaceous (dark-walled) fungus.

Threats

Due to rising demand for agarwood, as well as shortcomings in monitoring harvests and an increasing illegal trade, A. malaccensis is on the brink of extinction in the wild and is now considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. Due to large-scale logging operations, many forested areas where A. malaccensis was once abundant have been destroyed.[8]

Conservation

Despite its endangerment, A. malaccensis is highly adaptable and can perform well in areas contaminated by pollution. Due to this, conservation plans have been set in place to raise agarwood in contaminated areas as well as homestead gardens.[8]

References
  1. Harvey-Brown, Y. 2018. Aquilaria malaccensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T32056A2810130. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T32056A2810130.en. Downloaded on 21 October 2018.
  2. Broad, S. (1995) "Agarwood harvesting in Vietnam" TRAFFIC Bulletin 15:96
  3. Anonymous (November 2003) "Annex 2: Review of Significant Trade: Aquilaria malaccensis" Significant trade in plants: Implementation of Resolution Conf. 12.8: Progress with the Implementation of Species Reviews (CITES PC14 Doc.9.2.2) Archived 2012-02-06 at the Wayback Machine Fourteenth meeting of the Plants Committee, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Windhoek, Namibia
  4. Barden, Angela (2000) Heart of the Matter: Agarwood Use and Trade and CITES Implementation for Aquilaria malaccensis "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-08-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) TRAFFIC International, Cambridge, ISBN 1-85850-177-6
  5. -PC14 -09-02-02-A2.pdf page 47
  6. Ng, L.T., Chang Y.S. and Kadir, A.A. (1997) "A review on agar (gaharu) producing Aquilaria species" Journal of Tropical Forest Products 2(2): pp. 272-285
  7. formerly Phialophora parasitica Crous, P. W. et al. (1996) "Phaeoacremonium gen. nov. associated with wilt and decline diseases of woody hosts and human infections." Mycologia 88(5): pp. 786–796
  8. "Home gardens and polluted fields are helping conserve this perfume source". india.mongabay.com. 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
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