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Frankincense could disappear from church services |
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Written by The Telegraph UK
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Tuesday, 20 December 2011 00:00 |
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We may have to ration the Frankincense at the Bible Museum now:
 Frankincense could disappear from Christmas church services after ecologists warned that trees producing the festive incense could soon be wiped out.
The number of boswellia trees, which produce frankincense, could drop by half in the next 15 years and all but disappear in 50 years, figures suggest.
The incense has been a key part of Christmas since one of the Three Wise Men carried it as a gift to the newborn baby Jesus.
Dutch and Ethiopian researchers say that a combination of fire, cattle grazing and insect attack could destroy the boswellia trees.
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