Opportunities for the smallholder sandalwood industry in ... - ACIAR

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National timber production (m 3 ) 50,000 45,000 40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Figure 6. National timber production for Vanuatu, 1988–2008 Therefore, the industry benefits both the rural and the urban economies and provides income to the government through royalties. Benefits to the smallholder of growing sandalwood The heartwood and oil of sandalwood are highvalue, low-volume products that can be stored without deterioration, allowing economically viable transportation from smallholder to processor and from processor to market (Bond 2006). The stable nature of the product enables commercially mature trees to be harvested at any time with minimal additional inputs. This allows smallholders to schedule harvesting when prices are higher and when they require cash. In many areas of the sandalwood-producing islands, the trade in sandalwood constitutes a significant proportion of the annual income, where 50% of the respondents in our survey currently harvesting wild sandalwood indicated that they were unable to earn equivalent money from other activities as they do from selling sandalwood. Obviously, the earning power of harvesting sandalwood from natural sources would be dependent on the resource available to the landowner. In a given harvesting season, the amount of heartwood harvested varied among the respondents from 40 kg to 500 kg. The remaining respondents who harvest and sell sandalwood growing in the bush suggested that they could earn equivalent money from jobs like driving a local transport vehicle, carpentry work, providing tourist accommodation, or selling produce from a garden or cattle project. The average harvest among the respondents was three trees, each with approximately 40 kg of heartwood. At the minimum price set by the VDoF (800 vt/kg in 2009), this equates to a seasonal earning of about 96,000 vt (~US$1,000). Smallholders used the money earned from trading wild-harvested sandalwood mainly to pay the costs of their children’s school fees, which represent a significant annual expense in a family budget, and other family expenses such as food, medical bills, marriage ceremony, clothing, soap and kerosene. Current and future production in Vanuatu Vanuatu currently produces approximately 80 tonnes of sandalwood per year under a legislated licensing and harvesting quota. This volume equates to approximately 1–2% of world production. However, as the Vanuatu sandalwood industry is dependent on trees of wild origin, concerns over 21
the sustainability of wild-harvesting practices have persisted (Neil 1986; Corrigan et al. 2000; Gillieson et al. 2008), and the need for reafforestation activities to alleviate harvesting pressures on wild stands has been highlighted (Gillieson et al. 2008). Significant planting has occurred on some islands since 2000 (Thomson 2006), and interest in planting sandalwood now crosses many socioeconomic classes and includes smallholder farmers, village chiefs and leaders, wage earners, professional workers, expatriate residents and foreign investors. 22
Page 1 and 2: Opportunities for the smallholder s
Page 3 and 4: The Australian Centre for Internati
Page 5 and 6: of the Vanuatu sandalwood industry.
Page 7 and 8: Socioeconomics of sandalwood produc
Page 9 and 10: Acknowledgments The authors recogni
Page 11 and 12: Summary Vanuatu is a developing cou
Page 13 and 14: Introduction Sandalwood (Santalum s
Page 15 and 16: (Fiji, Samoa and Tonga). The uncont
Page 17 and 18: 140,000 Sandalwood oil production (
Page 19 and 20: 120,000 Sandalwood oil production (
Page 21: Percentage of total Vanuatu exports
Page 25 and 26: 120,000 100,000 Seedlings planted 8
Page 27 and 28: 25,000 Established sandalwood seedl
Page 29 and 30: 400 350 Heartwood production (tonne
Page 31 and 32: each of the three products, Summit
Page 33 and 34: Productivity of planted sandalwood
Page 35 and 36: 120 100 Heartwood yield (kg) 80 60
Page 37 and 38: Socioeconomics of sandalwood produc
Page 39 and 40: All input costs were expressed on a
Page 41 and 42: heartwood rotation. This sandalwood
Page 43 and 44: e beyond an individual smallholder
Page 45 and 46: NPV accumulated cash flow (US$) (di
Page 47 and 48: The data used to determine the size
Page 49 and 50: Table 6. Comparison of sandalwood o
Page 51 and 52: 90,000 80,000 70,000 Price (A$/tonn
Page 53 and 54: markets include growing consumer pr
Page 55 and 56: It is also possible to publish draf
Page 57 and 58: Box 2. Industry weaknesses and thre
Page 59 and 60: development strategies are based on
Page 61 and 62: or recognised through an accreditat
Page 63 and 64: Conclusions and recommendations An
Page 65 and 66: References AAG (Australian Agribusi
Page 67 and 68: Mwang’ingo P.L., Tcklchaimanot Z.

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