Thirteen technical staff from Forestry Department of Asmat Regency, Papua Province completed the Training Course on Agarwood Inoculation organized by BIOTROP on 7-9 September 2015 at the Centre’s headquarter in Bogor.

The natural forest of Papua Province is known to be the largest source of agarwood or gaharu in Indonesia that has a unique aroma. However, continuous harvesting of gaharu due to increasing global market demand without cultivation has resulted in diminishing tree stands and led to scarcity. Agarwood trees (Aquilaria sp. and Gyrinops sp.) have been included in Appendix II of the 2004 CITES Convention as rare species and also in the red list species of IUCN since 1995. This prohibits harvesting of agarwood from the wild. Thus, there is a need to develop skills to produce agarwood sustainably and meet the market demand without violating CITES.  

The training course was generally aimed to enable the participants to know the potentials of community-based agarwood production in Asmat Regency. Specifically, the training course objectives were to (1) introduce the participants to agarwood propagation and cultivation methods and agarwood oil extraction techniques, and (2) identify strategies to transfer these technologies to communities in Asmat Regency towards establishing income generating activities.

Resource persons during the training course were Mr Joner Situmorang, Mr Samsul A. Yani and Ms Dewi Rahmawati from BIOTROP and Ir M. Gozali from CV Fadhel Teknik.  Topics discussed during the training course included Potencial of Agarwood Cultivation in Indonesia; Vegetative Propagation (Plant Tissue Culture and Cuttings) and Generative Propagation of Agarwood; Agarwood Production Techniques through Bio-inoculation, and  Agarwood Oil Refining Techniques.

Mr Situmorang coordinated the training course in collaboration with the Forestry Department of Asmat Regency.