Frankincense Unveiled: From Ancient Times to Modern Global Markets

Get ready to embark on an aromatic adventure! The story of frankincense is far more exciting than you might think. Imagine a world where ancient traditions meet booming modern demand, and the race to find the best frankincense sets the stage for a global treasure hunt. In recent decades, the frankincense industry has experienced significant transformations. Over the past 25 to 30 years, global interest in frankincense has surged. This surge in popularity has led to increased demand, placing considerable pressure on the supply chain. As a result, the availability of frankincense has been affected, and the market has seen noticeable shifts in its structure and geographic distribution.

Presented by: Stephen Johnson and Anjanette DeCarlo

Stephen Johnson has been working on the sustainability of wild-harvested products since 2016. He has conducted field research and analyses in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana), East Africa (Ethiopia, Somaliland, Puntland), and the Arabian Peninsula (Oman), and has published almost a dozen peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and reports on frankincense. As a supplier of frankincense, myrrh, and other wild-harvested products, Stephen focuses on directly implementing regenerative approaches, as well as celebrating and promoting the brilliant rainbow of diversity in the scent, chemistry, and ecology of different frankincense and myrrh species.

Dr. Anjanette DeCarlo received her doctorate in Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Vermont. She is a Lecturer on supply chains in the Sustainable Innovation MBA at UVM and Anthropology at Saint Michaels College. As the Chief Sustainability Scientist at the Aromatic Plant Research Center, she conducts primary anthropological and ecological field research and ecological supply chain analysis on aromatic and medicinal species. As founder of the Save Frankincense initiative (and sole proprietor of her own LLC) she consults with the private sector on green and ethical supply webs and provides education and outreach for the public. As a development expert, she has worked on post-conflict evaluations of natural assets, supply chains and environmental projects, cross culturally, in Somaliland, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Canada and China.

Previously, Dr. DeCarlo was the Program Director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and with the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she worked on some of the first iterations of socially responsible business benchmarks and triple bottom line reporting. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors of Somaliland Biodiversity Foundation and the Global Frankincense Alliance. Dr. DeCarlo’s intensive work on frankincense is regularly highlighted in the media including CNN Inside Africa, the New York Times, and National Geographic.