Frankincense a Non-Wood Forest Product of Economic Importance in Sudan: Harvest Population, Tapping System and Yield from a Natural Mountainous Boswellia Papyrifera Forest

Boswellia Roxb. is a genus of moderately-sized, deciduous flowering trees and shrubs in the family Burseraceae, encompassing 20 species (Morka, 2024).Boswellia is native to arid regions of the Arabian Peninsula, east Africa, and India (Gonzalez, 2020) renowned for its aromatic resin.Boswellia paprifera (Del.)Hochst.stands as the exclusive species of the Boswellia genus naturally existing in Sudan (Ballal, 2011).Frankincense or gum Olibanum is an aromatic oleo-gum-resin obtained from the bark of trees belonging to the genus Boswellia.It is exuded naturally due to pressure created within the bark by extreme natural conditions (Singh et al., 2024), but especially oozes out when incisions are made into the living bark of trees (Sharma, Singh & Baghel, 2024), and solidifies into globular, pear or club shaped tears upon exposure to air.The process of resin extraction from trees is called tapping, and consists of making wounds in the stems of living trees to remove the bark and collect the resin that flows out from the exposed resin ducts (Sharma, Parasad, Pandey & Giri, 2018).Trees generate resin as a defence mechanism to heal and seal their bark following natural or human-induced injuries (Davison, Bongers & Phillips, 2022, Guta, Tan & Zhao, 2024) to prevent the attack and spread of pathogenic microorganisms.Harvesting frankincense is a meticulous process that involves specific timing and techniques (Fatima, Ramani, Vijayasundaram & Sivamani, 2024), influenced by natural, institutional and technical factors.The key characteristics of