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Frankincense, a fragrance which, according to the Bible, was brought to the baby Jesus by one of the Three Wise Men, may go out of production in the next 50 years, ecologists warn.

The Agence France-Press reports that teams of researchers from the Netherlands and Ethiopia say the number of Boswellian trees could halve in the next 15 years.

Radically depleted populations of the tree, which grows in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, could mean that within 50 years the production of Frankincense could be “doomed” to end.

The first large-scale study monitoring the state of the Boswellian tree - which produces the resin from which Frankincense is made - found that fire, intensive cattle grazing and attacks from the long-horn beetle were the main culprits for its decline.