review · Trees Forests and People
Boswellia papyrifera woodlands across Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan face substantial sustainability challenges despite their ecological role and economic importance as the source of frankincense. A systematic review of 38 studies reveals stand densities ranging from 11 to 452 trees per hectare, with populations heavily skewed towards intermediate and mature trees. Recruitment failure is widespread and primarily driven by seedling mortality caused by grazing, fire, and drought during the establishment phase, rather than a lack of seeds. In addition, intensive or repeated resin tapping reduces tree health, weakens reproductive performance, and increases vulnerability to secondary damage. Woodland survival depends on interconnected demographic, ecological, harvesting, and socioeconomic factors, pointing to the need for coordinated management that combines harvesting regulations, juvenile tree protection, disturbance control, restoration, and participatory governance.
Frankincense harvesting supports rural livelihoods and local economies across the Horn of Africa while Boswellia woodlands supply vital ecosystem services. Because these tree populations are failing to regenerate naturally under heavy tapping and environmental pressures, understanding the specific causes of recruitment failure is essential to prevent the collapse of both local incomes and vulnerable dryland ecosystems.
The findings provide early-stage ecological guidance for commercial frankincense enterprises, forestry managers, and rural harvesting cooperatives seeking sustainable resin yields. While not presenting a market-ready tool, the synthesis outlines operational thresholds for tapping intensity and woodland protection. These insights can inform sustainable harvesting standards, supply chain certification programmes, and resource management strategies, though implementation remains at an applied policy and planning stage rather than near-market deployment.
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The woodlands of Boswellia papyrifera in the Horn of Africa are known to contribute substantially to ecosystem services and are economically valuable to rural communities because they produce frankincense. However, concerns about inadequate regeneration, repeated disturbances, and possibly unsustainable resin harvesting have cast doubt on their long-term sustainability. This systematic review examines B. papyrifera woodlands in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan. The review followed the PRISMA 2020 framework. Searches of bibliographic databases and supplementary sources identified 68 records; after removing duplicates and assessing against predefined eligibility criteria, 38 sources were retained for the review. Because the studies differed substantially in design, sampling methods, ecological indicators, monitoring periods, and reporting formats, a quantitative meta-analysis was not undertaken. Instead, findings were synthesized using a structured comparative qualitative approach. Reported stand density ranged from 11 to 452 trees ha⁻¹, and many studies described populations in which intermediate- and mature-sized trees were more prominent than seedlings and saplings. Recruitment problems were linked to seedling mortality, grazing, fires, droughts, and other disturbances, suggesting that recruitment issues are driven mainly by the establishment phase rather than by seed scarcity alone. Evidence on resin harvesting indicated that intensive or repeated tapping can affect reproductive performance, tree condition, and susceptibility to secondary damage, although the effects varied with harvesting intensity and recovery conditions. Taken together, the evidence indicates that B. papyrifera woodland sustainability is shaped by interacting demographic, ecological, harvesting, and socioeconomic processes rather than resin extraction alone. Management should therefore combine protection of juvenile cohorts, appropriate regulation of resin harvesting, disturbance management, restoration where necessary, participatory governance, and long-term demographic and tree-health monitoring. The evidence base remains geographically uneven, particularly for Eritrea and Sudan, and further longitudinal and comparative studies are needed to establish more robust indicators of population persistence.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.tfp.2026.101463
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