Sandalwood

The Forest Products Commission (FPC) is responsible for the commercial harvesting, regeneration, marketing, and sale of wild sandalwood from Crown land (including land subject to pastoral leases). The commercial harvesting of sandalwood on Crown land is controlled under the Forest Products Act 2000 and the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. 

Wild sandalwood is also retained through conservation reserves, comprised of approximately 21 million hectares managed by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA). This area occurs within sandalwood’s natural distribution.

In accordance with Part 5 of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (BC Act), the Santalum spicatum (Sandalwood) Biodiversity Management Programme provides for the conservation, protection, and management of wild sandalwood while acknowledging the local community. The Programme’s principles are applied to the FPC’s management of wild sandalwood.

The FPC manages the harvest of up to 2,500 tonnes of wild sandalwood each year, mainly from the semi-arid and arid rangelands areas of the State. This harvest consists of approximately 50 percent green sandalwood (or live trees) and 50 percent dead sandalwood. 

Wild sandalwood harvested by the FPC is certified to the international standard for Environmental Management Systems (EMS ISO 14001) as well as Chain of Custody certification under the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Standard (PEFC ST) 2002:2020. This means that our practices have been through a rigorous, independent environmental review process. Certification provides customers with assurance that their sandalwood products originate from responsibly managed forests and an assurance that wild Sandalwood supplies do not originate from controversial sources.

Our objective for wild sandalwood regeneration is to establish a cohort of young trees in natural vegetation, including areas which are currently subject to harvesting operations, and additional areas previously subject to harvesting or where sandalwood is in decline.

For more than 50 years, the natural recruitment of wild Western Australian sandalwood has been poor due to overgrazing, drought, fire and the widespread disappearance of small marsupials, such as the woylie, from predation by feral cats and foxes. 

The FPC and Murdoch University researchers investigated the role of woylies in the regeneration of sandalwood. In 2005, they confirmed that the animals were collecting and hoarding seeds in shallow diggings, a behaviour known as scatter-hoarding. 

Based on this knowledge, the FPC designed a mechanical process to mimic the role of the woylie in seed dispersal. This process evolved into an annual regeneration program named Operation Woylie. Each year, we plant more than five million seeds in over 1,500 kilometres of mechanical rip-lines. Additionally, we engage Aboriginal contractors to plant sandalwood seeds in a range of environments and land systems in the Rangelands.

Our Aboriginal engagement vision is to deliver healthy forests and communities through collaborative First Nations relationships to create Aboriginal economic development opportunities in the timber industry. Sandalwood is a significant component of the State’s timber industry and occurs throughout traditional Aboriginal lands. Aboriginal peoples from the Western deserts to the coast have a holistic connection to sandalwood in culture, healing and sustenance. 

Sandalwood Dreaming is an initiative of our Reconciliation Action Plan to engage Aboriginal owned businesses and traditional owners to plant sandalwood seeds and harvest dead sandalwood as part of our sustainable harvesting operations. It aims to continue the ancient Western Australian sandalwood story by providing economic opportunity today and regenerating the sandalwood resource for generations of traditional owners to come.

Demand for Western Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) oil and wood, particularly in Asia, has been strong for centuries and continues to grow. 

Currently sandalwood is harvested almost exclusively from natural ‘wild’ stands across the arid rangelands. However, future supply is expected to be complemented by sandalwood sourced from plantations established by the FPC, private companies and individual farmers. 

The Forest Products Commission (FPC) manage about 6,000 hectares of sandalwood plantations located on sharefarms in the South West, Wheatbelt and Mid-West regions. These plantations have not yet reached maturity and will be grown on until at least age 25 to allow the development of oil in the heartwood. A thinning program has just commenced to maintain the health of the plantations by removing poorer trees and to better match sandalwood trees with their host trees. Some harvested trees will be processed and blended for sale as incense powder into international markets. 

Western Australian sandalwood is progressively developing into a growing tree farm industry. When integrated into the farming landscape, sandalwood plantations contribute to improving the Wheatbelt environment and provide income diversity options for farmers.

The illegal harvesting and theft of sandalwood impacts the sustainability of the resource and has caused significant disruption to the markets and reputation of the Western Australian sandalwood industry.

The harvesting of sandalwood is managed under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. It has replaced the Sandalwood Act 1929 and the Wildlife Conservation Act 1950, and it significantly improves the State Government's ability to protect native species and important biodiversity assets.

The Act increases the penalties for the illegal harvesting of sandalwood and under the new legislation, the maximum penalties for illegally harvesting wild sandalwood are $200,000 for individuals and $1 million for corporations.

The FPC has commenced work on revising policies and procedures and developing systems and processes to allow for the achievement of AS 4707:2014 Chain of Custody for forest products. This will provide confirmation to our customers that the wood products they purchase have been sourced from legally verifiable supply areas and produced in a sustainable way.