Endangered Oud Tree Species: Which Are at Risk and Why?

The decline of oud trees is no longer a possibility but a reality recorded on international protection lists; several oud tree species are now classified as threatened. Which species are they? And why did they reach this point? In this article we close the section on the causes of decline by looking at endangered oud tree species, and what that means for the trade and the consumer.

Which species are endangered?

Oud trees belong to several botanical genera; the most prominent threatened ones are:

Why did they become endangered?

It was not a single cause, but an accumulation of the factors we covered in this section: the overharvesting that fells whole trees, the deforestation that erases the habitat, and the slow growth of the tree that makes replacement hard. These factors converged until the wild populations fell to a point that called for classifying them as threatened.

What does "endangered" mean for the consumer?

Classifying a species as "endangered" does not mean banning its trade, but regulating it to ensure its sustainability — which we detail in the role of CITES. For the consumer, it means the importance of choosing a responsible source that guarantees the oud came in a way that does not add pressure on the wild species. Buying cultivated, organized Indonesian oud is a choice that eases this pressure.

How is a species' status measured?

International bodies rely on precise criteria to classify the status of each species. The Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) ranks species in rising tiers: "vulnerable," then "endangered," then "critically endangered," according to the scale of population decline, the range of distribution, and the speed of deterioration. Alongside it comes the CITES convention, which lists species in appendices that regulate their cross-border trade. Some oud species have been classified at advanced levels of risk after their wild numbers clearly declined. These criteria are not rigid figures but early-warning tools that push nations to protect what remains before it is too late. Knowing a species' status helps suppliers and buyers make responsible decisions; oud harvested from a threatened species without regulation deepens its crisis, while cultivated or regulated oud eases the pressure and gives it a chance to recover.

Where are the endangered species concentrated?

Oud trees grow in a tropical belt stretching from northeast India and Bangladesh, through Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, to Indonesia and Malaysia. In some of these regions the wild trees declined so sharply that they nearly vanished locally, while others retained better numbers thanks to their vast forests and the spread of organized cultivation. Indonesia is among the richest of these habitats, with the diversity of its species and islands, which has made it central to sustainable oud production today. Yet this richness does not mean permanent safety; commercial pressure moves from one region to another whenever a source runs dry and demand turns elsewhere. That is why protecting the species is an integrated regional responsibility that no single country can fulfill alone. Choosing oud from a source that documents its origin and abides by regulation helps distribute the pressure fairly and safeguard the most fragile habitats.

Conclusion

Several oud tree species — in the Aquilaria and Gyrinops genera — have become classified as threatened through overharvesting, deforestation and slow growth, and so came under international protection. This calls on the consumer to choose a responsible, cultivated source. At Oud Treasure, we offer oud from organized sources that safeguard the wild species.