Spotlight: ENACT research helps Kenya cut illegal sandalwood trade

ISS worked with Kenyan police and forestry officers to significantly reduce the lucrative illicit trade in sandalwood.

Published on 05 March 2025 in Impact

Research by the ENACT organised crime programme at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) exposed the scale of the illegal sandalwood trade in Kenya, and a complex web of corrupt relationships. Recommendations for interventions at community, national and regional level were made.

‘ENACT helped the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) to map the illicit trade, identify key players and trade routes, and show where security services have been infiltrated by organised crime,’ says KFS Chief Inspector Gledy Kosgey. ‘We got a lot of ideas from ENACT on protecting our sandalwood trees and preventing further loss from the illegal trade.’

The East African Sandalwood tree (Osyris lanceolata) grows wild in community forests in northern Kenya. Its leaves, stem, and roots are used in local traditional medicine and are prized in the global perfume, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries.

A kilogram of sandalwood is sold locally for less than a dollar, but a litre of its oil fetches up to US$3 000 on international markets. Growing demand since 2002 saw organised criminal syndicates enter the trade, causing deforestation and biodiversity loss, and putting sandalwood at risk of extinction in Kenya.

Local collaborators dig up the trees, with women brokers negotiating with community leaders and bribing police. They facilitate local trade while corrupt police, customs and port officials aid shipments to neighbouring countries, the Middle East and Asia. The origin of the wood is often disguised.

Sandalwood was listed as endangered in 2004 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). In just nine months in 2005, the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) made 179 arrests and seized about 180 tonnes of illegally-sourced wood. In 2007, Kenya issued a five-year ban on sandalwood harvesting, and in 2013, CITES declared it a species facing extinction if trade was not controlled.

Despite these efforts, the criminal exploitation of sandalwood continued.

The illegal trade has been massively reduced, with poachers, traders, police and conservation officials prosecuted

In September 2022, a senior police officer and two police drivers were arrested with more than 13 tonnes of illegally harvested wood loaded into police vehicles, highlighting the role of corrupt officials in the illicit trade.

Two months later, in response to the arrests, ENACT Senior Researcher Dr Willis Okumu helped form a technical and policy working group including the KFS, Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the US Embassy and the Focused Conservation non-governmental organisation (NGO).

This led to sandalwood trafficking becoming a priority for organised crime detectives. It also prompted action from communities, Kenyan forest and wildlife services, embassies and conservation NGOs.

‘Through ENACT’s mobilisation, we now have the strength and energy to raise our voices and report the traffickers to police and follow cases in courts without fear of anybody,’ says John Tineja, a community conservationist from the Northern Kenya Human Security Network.

The illegal trade has now been significantly reduced from tonnes to kilograms, with poachers, traders, police and conservation officials arrested and prosecuted.

‘ENACT provided the insights that helped to make a lot of arrests,’ KFS Chief Inspector Kosgey says. ‘It played an important role in starting dialogue between communities, police and environmental agencies to coordinate a response to the illicit trade, and helped to educate communities on sustainable use of cultivated sandalwood.’

In February 2023, Kenyan police burned tonnes of seized sandalwood in Nairobi, a visible statement of government intent to address the trafficking, and a call to action to East African governments to shut loopholes that enable environmental crimes. The symbolic destruction of the illegal harvest also prevented its resale by corrupt officials and prompted Kenyan law enforcement to commit to investigating and prosecuting environmental crimes.

‘By raising awareness and coordinating a response to the mass organised harvesting of sandalwood, we are protecting biodiversity and livelihoods, and disrupting organised environmental crime,’ says Okumu.

The presence of Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forestry at the time, Roselinda Soipan Tuya, showed the commitment of Kenya’s political leaders to hold traffickers and their government accomplices accountable.

ENACT is implemented by the ISS in partnership with INTERPOL and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

For more information, contact:

Willis Okumu, ISS: [email protected]