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December 22nd, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda THURSDAY, Dec. 22 (HealthDay News) — Researchers warn that the
trees that produce frankincense are being lost at such a high rate that
production of the fragrant resin could fall by half over the next 15
years.
The ecologists from the Netherlands and Ethiopia also said that numbers
of the trees could drop by 90 percent over the next 50 years. If nothing
is done about the causes of this decline — fire, grazing and insect
attack — frankincense production could be doomed, they say.
Their forecasts, based on large-scale field studies, appear in the Dec.
21 issue of the Journal of Applied Ecology.
Christians believe that frankincense was one of the gifts carried by
three kings who traveled to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus. It is
obtained by tapping various species of Boswellia, a type of tree that
grows in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula.
“Current management of Boswellia populations is clearly unsustainable,”
team leader Frans Bongers, of Wageningen University, said in a journal
news release. “Our models show that within 50 years, populations of
Boswellia will be decimated, and the declining populations mean
frankincense production is doomed. This is a rather alarming message for
the incense industry and conservation organizations.”
Bongers added that frankincense extraction probably won’t be the main
cause of population decline, “which is likely to be caused by burning,
grazing and attack by the long-horn beetle, which lays its eggs under the
bark of the tree.”
The researchers studied Boswellia populations in northwest Ethiopia and
found a high death rate among adult trees. They also discovered that the
older trees are not being replaced because few seedlings survive to become
saplings.
“The number of fires and intensity of grazing in our study area has
increased over recent decades as a result of a large increase in the
number of cattle, and this could be why seedlings fail to grow into
saplings. At the same time, a large proportion of trees we studied died
after being attacked by the long-horn beetle,” Bongers explained.
Significant new management incentives are needed if Boswellia
populations are to be preserved, he said.
More information
London’s Natural History Museum has more about Boswellia and frankincense.
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