Opportunities for the smallholder sandalwood industry in Vanuatu. ACIAR Technical Reports No. 79

[Extract] Vanuatu is a developing country with a small rural-based economy and limited high-value export products. It has a wealth of forest resources that provide benefits to local communities on both subsistence and commercial levels. Timber exports from Vanuatu have been a good source of foreign exchange, royalties and taxes. However, timber volumes have decreased over the past 10 years, reducing potential export earnings and royalties available to the Vanuatu Government. A positive outcome of this decline is that it has led to increased community and private interest in producing commercially significant forestry species, particularly the highly valuable sandalwood tree