Sandalwood
Santalum spicatum (Sandalwood) is Western Australia’s native aromatic sandalwood species that grows wild among vegetation of the Wheatbelt and rangelands.
This page provides information for the department’s management of wild sandalwood.
The department is committed to consulting, partnering and empowering Traditional Owners in on-Country sandalwood management and joint land management.
In the last 200 years, sandalwood occurrences have variably, and in some cases, significantly changed. This is most apparent throughout the Wheatbelt where extensive agricultural clearing has reduced wild sandalwood occurrence to fragmented populations within conservation reserves and remnant native vegetation on private property. An industry response to this has been to establish sandalwood in approximately 20,000 hectares of plantation.
While wild sandalwood still broadly occurs across the rangelands and deserts, population condition varies considerably due to cumulative impacts associated with pest and feral species, lawful and unlawful take, grazing, altered fire regimes and climate change.
The Santalum spicatum (Sandalwood) Biodiversity Management Programme (Sandalwood BMP) sets out how Western Australia’s wild sandalwood will be conserved, protected and managed. The Sandalwood BMP will outline processes for its ecologically sustainable use now and into the future, consistent with the requirements of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016.
The Sandalwood BMP applies to the management of wild sandalwood on both Crown and private lands across Western Australia. The Sandalwood BMP does not apply to plantation sandalwood for which there are industry generated resources.
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