Smuggling Imperils Exotic Fragrance of Sandalwood

KUPANG, Indonesia —  The distinctive smell of the sacred sandalwood tree will vanish from West Timor within about five years and the world will have lost a major source of an exotic fragrance, killed off by smugglers.

“Four or five years from now sandalwood will probably have disappeared,” Fransiscus Balalembang, a member of parliament for the province, said in a recent interview.

“It feels almost like losing our sacred inheritance.”

Sandalwood, essential for many perfumes and for joss sticks in Chinese temples, has lured traders for centuries to the island of Timor, one of the few parts of the world where the trees grow in quantity.

However, smugglers, for whom profit outweighs government bans, are killing the trees off rapidly and the forestry office in West Timor estimates there are now fewer than 300,000 left.

West Timor, source of 80% of Indonesia’s sandalwood, produces about 600 tons of wood a year but Balalembang reckons all the old trees have been felled.

Efforts to grow sandalwood elsewhere in Indonesia yielded trees with no scent. Prompted by fears the wood would just disappear, Jakarta banned its export two years ago, allowing only sandalwood oil to be sent abroad.

The local government in Kupang, which controls sandalwood logging and trading, is trying to involve residents in a replanting program--the first time many of them have dared to profit from the tree. For centuries the fragrant wood was restricted to the exclusive use of local rulers.

It is not easy to encourage people in this poor region to grow a tree, however special, when they get little immediate benefit.

“Even if I plant it now, I’ll never smell its fragrance,” laments Nicolaus Lasboy, a 40-year-old worker at the government sandalwood center.

It takes the tree 50 years to develop its aroma.

The wood is in heavy demand from woodcarvers, especially in the Hindu-dominated island of Bali, for sacred sculptures for temples.

The oil is sought by the world’s perfume and incense makers, mainly in Hong Kong, the Middle East and Europe. They take about 15 tons a year worth about $2 million.

“It’s small for the country, but it’s almost a half of the regency’s revenue,” said Piet Tallo, the regent.

That is incentive enough for his local government to battle illegal loggers and smugglers.