ProvenancE
At Dutjahn, we believe true provenance is more than simply a source of origin.
For us, it is also the continuous investment in the myriad of touchpoints that exist along our supply chain.
From Indigenous knowledge to modern silviculture processes, sustainable harvest and regeneration practices; our in-depth involvement across all channels means our product has an undeniable surety of provenance, from wood to oil.
Endemic to the Western parts of Australia, Santalum spicatum trees grow throughout open woodlands and are planted as forests.
The essential oil extracted from sandalwood varies throughout each tree with different quantities and chemistries produced in the roots, butts, logs, and branches. The final oil is also affected by where the tree grows, wild or plantation, the soil and the amount of rainfall.
Green, living trees are harvested either from plantations or from the wild. Additionally, the wild trees that have died of natural causes can be harvested, these are called ‘deadwood’, and this wood produces a different oil to that of green wood.
At Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils, we separate the provenances and wood types for select distillations before blending the grades to specific proportions for our extraordinary oil.
Native Title
‘Native Title’ is recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people have rights and interests to their land that derive from their traditional laws and customs.
Indigenous Australians are inextricably linked to their lands or ‘country’. They ‘care for country’ as custodians of the lands, in the same way that their forebears have done before them, and their descendants will continue thereafter.
Indigenous sandalwood is harvested using Indigenous knowledge and comes from the lands and customs of the earth’s oldest continuous culture, but now with the aid of modern technological information systems. Every wild harvested green tree is Global Positioning System (GPS) mapped pre- and post-harvest, with harvest sites annually verified by the Western Australian State Government. Seed planting is also GPS mapped and regrowth recorded through photographs and documentation.
Over 20% - 40% of sandalwood trees are left untouched within any given harvest area, as part of traditional stewardship practices that protects biodiversity.
Plantation Sandalwood
Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils has access to over 13,000 hectares of plantation resource certified to Australian Forestry Standards and globally recognized by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), the world’s largest sustainable forest management certification scheme.
Planted in the ‘Wheatbelt’ of Western Australia, sandalwood plantations were selected to regenerate degraded farmlands by lowering the water table, reducing salinity, improving topsoil, fixing nitrogen, and sequestering carbon.
As a hemi-parasitic plant, sandalwood requires a host tree for growth and prosperity. Both the host tree and the sandalwood tree are West Australian species that grow naturally in the area and the resulting large biomass plantations provide native habitat for local flora and fauna.
Modern silviculture, harvest and processes are refined on the plantations with many of the advanced practices shared with the Indigenous harvesters for skill sharing and continuous improvement across the organization.
FPC Sandalwood
The Forest Products Commission (FPC) is a West Australian State Government agency that manages the harvesting of timber from the state’s plantations, native forests, and woodlands.
Australian sandalwood is an important product for the state and is wild harvested from in and around the goldfields of Western Australia under the guidance of the FPC who promote sustainable harvest and regeneration practices with third party contractors.
Using the strength of an multi-year contract with the FPC, Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils access wild wood that has been the main type of wood used for the sandalwood oil industry over the past 30 years. FPC offer both green and dead sandalwood.
