Orang asli harvest gaharu in a sustainable manner

Gentle method: Andak demonstrating how they carve out parts of the trunk of a karas tree to check for agarwood.

GERIK: Traditionally, orang asli only used the soft bark of karas trees to weave items such as clothes and bags but in the 1980s, they discovered a new source of income – harvesting agarwood.

Deep in the forest reserves here, the karas trees stand tall with large chunks of their trunks gouged out by orang asli checking to see if the agarwood resin has grown in the heartwood inside.