FEATURED PROJECTS:
Oman: Hojari Frankincense
It was more than 15 years after Denzil started work with Agarwood that someone from a British cosmetic retailer approach him to ask whether he could come up with some alternative locations for another highly valuable and endangered incense producing tree, namely frankincense ( boswellia sacra).
The company’s flagship products needed frankincense in ever increasing quantities. They were more and more concerned about the lack of sustainability and the opaqueness of their existing supply chain. As luck would have it Denzil had recently met up with an old Kenyan essential oil distiller who had moved to Oman to set up a distillation unit there for frankincense. Within a few days Denzil had re-established contact and thus began yet another adventure into an unknown and little charted water of incense and resins.
Frankincense is historically of huge importance not just because it was brought by the three wise men as a gift at Jesus’s birth but because it was one of the most valuable commodities in international trade well before Christ’s birth.
The Romans, The Queen of Sheba, The Sultans of Constantinople and the Emperors of China all bought frankincense. Today sadly many of the major sources of frankincense suffer from drought, civil war and insecurity. As a result access to the far off and inhospitable parts of the Horn of Africa where most frankincense comes from is difficult and dangerous. Oman, by contrast is stable and well organised and as Denzil soon discovered had already began some important conservation work with frankincense.
Things moved forward pretty rapidly and within a year a nursery for seedling trees had been established and a new supply chain of high quality and indeed organic frankincense essential oil was established.
Denzil with the help of the Environment Society of Oman with whom he collaborates on a regular basis managed to persuade two local Universities to organise the first International Conference on Frankincense and Medicinal Plants in Muscat in November 2018 and the following year at the World Congress of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in Cyprus a not for profit making organisation, the Global Frankincense Alliance, was set up to support the sustainable and ethically sourcing of frankincense worldwide.
What started off as a single company sourcing enquiry ended up with Denzil coordinating a major global conservation and sustainability initiative.