DILI, 11 january 2021 (TATOLI) – The Government of Timor-Leste, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MoAF) would plant the native plant ‘Sandalwood’ to promote and protect the species from becoming endangered.
Five hectares in Manatuto municipality would be planted with more than 1667 trees of sandalwood and vegetable hummingbird tree in each hectare to celebrate the national day of sandalwood and forests day on january 13.
The same celebration would be carried out in other municipalities, including RAEOA. The Municipal Agriculture Office in each municipality, together with the President of the Municipal Authority, and relevant entities would plant two hectares of land with sandalwood and vegetable hummingbird plant.
The Director-General for Forests, Coffee and Industrial Plants of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery (MoAF), Raimundo Mau, informed that it is important to protect Timor-Leste’s rare, and unique plant sandalwood from becoming endangered.
Every year, MoAF produces more than one million trees, including sandalwood and vegetable hummingbird plant to be distributed and planted by families, communities, institutions, and relevant entities.
“We need to keep promoting the sandalwood in the country. To do so, we need to increase the plantation of the sandalwood and take care of our wild sandalwood plant in the forests,” Mau told TATOLI in his office, in Dili, on monday.
“The terraces had been prepared as well as the sandalwood trees are ready to be transplanted and planted during the commemoration of the national day in Manantuto municipality,” he said.
He said the commercialization of sandalwood had been halted for almost a decade now, saying the suspension of the commercialization would be resumed once the planation reached its stage of maturity.
Mau stressed that if any sandalwood farmers trying to commercialize the sandalwood was considered illegal: “We need to wait until our sandalwood reach its state of maturity, and then we can open the opportunity for the commercialization.”
Producing commercially valuable sandalwood with high levels of fragrance oils requires sandalwood trees to be a minimum of 15 years old – the yield, quality, and volume are still to be clearly understood.
Mau said that every year the government of Timor-Leste commemorates the national day with the replantation program: “Apart from sandalwood, we also plant those trees that can help stabilize the land and prevent erosion by binding the soil and protecting the ground such as casuarina tree, etc.”
The National Directorate for Forests, Coffee, and Industrial Plant would propose to the Prime Minister to mobilize all entities to pay special attention to the national day of sandalwood and forests day to take part in the reforestation activities as well as taking care of the forest.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges Rosario
