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Implementation of the Convention for agarwood-producing taxa

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Table of Contents

  1. Preamble
  2. Division – Regarding 'artificially propagated' specimens of agarwood-producing taxa
  3. Paragraph 1.
  4. Paragraph 2.
  6. Division – Regarding ‘assisted production’ specimens of agarwood-producing taxa
  7. Paragraph 4.
  8. Paragraph 5.
  11. Division – Regarding parts and derivatives
  12. Paragraph 9.

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03 Mar, 2013
04 Dec, 2025 en 03 Mar, 2013 en

Implementation of the Convention for agarwood-producing taxa (Rev. CoP20)

RECOGNIZING that agarwood-producing taxa included in Appendix II refer to Aquilaria spp. and Gyrinops spp.;NOTING that wild populations of agarwood-producing taxa are in decline due to several reasons, including selective harvesting and over-exploitation, some of the main species in trade are threatened with extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List1 and the conservation status of others remains unclear;1https://cites.org/sites/default/files/documents/PC/26/agenda/E-PC26-27.pdfRECOGNIZING that some agarwood-producing tree species are easy to propagate artificially, and AWARE that the production of resinous wood is typically induced through natural or artificial stress factors (e.g. bacteria/fungi attacks, inoculation or mechanical injuries), and that the amount of tree stock is not equivalent to the amount of resinous wood produced;RECOGNIZING that, for artificially propagated agarwood-producing taxa, and all parts and derivatives thereof, the provisions of Article VII, paragraph 5), of the Convention apply;NOTING that the definition of 'artificially propagated' in Resolution Conf. 11.11 (Rev. CoP20) on Regulation of trade in plants, and Resolution Conf. 10.13 (Rev. CoP20) on Implementation of the Convention for tree species can be applied to monospecific tree plantations;AWARE that agarwood-producing taxa can be grown in monospecific or mixed species plantations;RECOGNIZING that for plant species that are propagated and grown in diverse production systems with varying degrees of human intervention, the Conference of the Parties adopted the term and definition for ‘assisted production’ and source code ‘Y’ at its 18th meeting (Geneva, 2018), in Resolution Conf. 11.11 (Rev. CoP20) on Regulation of trade in plants, and Resolution Conf. 12.3 (Rev. CoP20) on Permits and certificates, respectively;RECOGNIZING that range States may have different procedures for making non-detriment findings (NDFs) for agarwood-producing taxa and that Scientific Authorities are encouraged to take into account the concepts and non-binding principles in Resolution Conf. 16.7 (Rev. CoP17) on Non-detriment findings;NOTING the availability of guidance materials to assist Parties in making non-detriment findings for agarwoodproducing taxa, such as the CITES NDF Guidance2;2https://cites.org/eng/prog/ndf/index.phpRECOGNIZING that range States may establish national export quotas for agarwood specimens, which must be for individual species of agarwood-producing taxa consistent with the guidelines in Resolution Conf. 14.7 (Rev. CoP15) on Management of nationally established export quotas;ACKNOWLEDGING that paragraph 3 iv), of the Resolution Conf. 13.7 (CoP17) on Control of trade in personal and household effects sets certain maximum quantities of specimens of agarwood-producing taxa that may qualify for the personal or household effects exemption from the provisions of Articles III, IV and V of the Convention;RECOGNIZING, however, that many Parties do not fully implement the exemptions of personal and household effects in Article VII, paragraph 3 of the Convention, and Resolution Conf. 13.7 (Rev. CoP17) on Control of trade in personal and household effects for specimens of agarwood-producing taxa, due to stricter domestic measures or other provisions;ACKNOWLEDGING the outcomes of the workshop on Implementation of CITES for Agarwood-producing species (Kuwait, 3-6 October 2011), the Asian regional workshops on agarwood (Management of wild and plantation-grown agarwood (Indonesia, 22-24 November 2011), the Asian Regional Workshop on the Management of Wild and Planted Agarwood Taxa (India, 19-23 January 2015, and Indonesia, 25-29 June 2018), the CITES Tree Species Programme Validation Workshop on Agarwood Report (Malaysia, 20-22 June 2022), and the International Tropical Timber Organization technical report: Expensive, Exploited and Endangered. A review of the agarwood-producing genera Aquilaria and Gyrinops: CITES considerations, trade patterns, conservation, and management (Thompson, I.D., Lim, T., and Turjaman, M. 2022. ITTO Technical Series No. 51);RECOGNIZING that the management of agarwood-producing taxa can be improved through measures taken by and with cooperation among range States and agarwood exporting, importing, and transit States; andNOTING that information document CoP16 Inf. 3, contains a previous version of the CITES Glossary of Agarwood products, with illustrated samples of agarwood products;[preamble amended by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]
The Conference of the Parties to the Convention

Regarding 'artificially propagated' specimens of agarwood-producing taxa

[title amended by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]
1.AGREES that the current definition of ‘artificially propagated’ in Resolution Conf. 11.11 (Rev. CoP18) does not fully cover all production systems and current practices in cultivating agarwood-producing taxa, due to the definition of the term ‘under controlled conditions’, and due to the fact that agarwood-producing taxa are also grown in mixed-species plantations.
[paragraph 1 amended by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]
2.ADOPTS the following definition:For agarwood-producing taxa, ’under controlled conditions’ means monospecific or mixed species plantations or non-wild environments without wild populations of agarwood-producing taxa or remnants thereof, that are cultivated and intensively manipulated by human intervention for the purpose of producing agarwood specimens;
[paragraph 2 amended by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]
3.DETERMINES that the term ‘artificially propagated’ shall refer to plant specimens of agarwood-producing taxa as follows:
a)grown under controlled conditions; and
b)grown from cultivated parental stock in accordance with Resolution Conf. 11.11 (Rev. CoP18), or from specimens that are exempted from CITES regulation through the annotation associated with the Appendix-II listings of agarwood-producing taxa.
[paragraph 3 amended by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]

Regarding ‘assisted production’ specimens of agarwood-producing taxa

[title inserted by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]
4.AGREES that for agarwood specimens derived from trees that do not fulfil the definition of ‘artificially propagated’ according to Resolution Conf 11.11 (Rev. CoP18), and that are considered not to be ‘wild’ because they are propagated or planted in an environment with some level of human intervention for the purpose of plant production, the requirements for ‘assisted production’ apply as for other plant species;
[paragraph 4 substituted by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]
5.ALSO AGREES that propagation material for ‘assisted production’ of agarwood-producing taxa may be derived from plant material that is exempt from the provisions of the Convention, or from artificially propagated plants, or from plants obtained through assisted production’ in accordance with Resolution Conf 11.11. (Rev. CoP18), or from plant material collected in a non-detrimental manner from wild populations and legally acquired in accordance with the provisions of Article IV of the Convention and relevant national laws;
[paragraph 5 inserted by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]

Regarding non-detriment findings (NDF)

6.ENCOURAGES range States to make use of the CITES NDF guidance as a reference for making NDFs for specimens of agarwood-producing taxa sourced from wild populations or from ‘assisted production’ and for the establishment and maintenance of parental stock, and any subsequent additions to the parental stock for artificially propagated trees. The guidance is available on the CITES website and should be updated as appropriate;
[paragraph 6 amended by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]
7.ALSO ENCOURAGES Parties and the Secretariat to use the CITES NDF guidance in capacity-building workshops and relevant training materials;
[paragraph 7 amended by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]

Regarding management and trade control

8.ENCOURAGES range States to establish registration systems for the artificial propagation and ‘assisted production’ of agarwood-producing taxa; and
[paragraph 8 amended by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]
8.***
[paragraph 8 deleted by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]
9.***
[paragraph 9 deleted by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]

Regarding parts and derivatives

[title added by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]
9.RECOMMENDS that Parties use the ‘Glossary of agarwood products’ in the Annex to the current Resolution.
[paragraph 9 added by item 93 of CoP20 Plen. Rec. 3 (Rev. 1) Summary record of the third plenary session]