The Enemy 

Although I refer to the loggers on this website, it is important to understand who they are.  They are businessmen, usually of foreign extraction and often indeed foreign, who work with corrupt officials to steal the resources of the country for personal gain.

They are NOT local people, although they provide employment to locals and have created an economic system that creates dependence on their rapacious economy.

 

The real challenge we face to ensure the rainforest is protected in perpetuity is to replace this economic system with a compelling system that provides a secure livelihood for local people, thanks to the forest.  This is our ultimate goal, one that needs to be replicated where there is rainforest to save.

The local people want this - loggers and corrupt officials are not popular, but currently there is no alternative.  Ours is a compelling future for them, the region, the country and ultimately our grandchildren.

This is a shot of the forest which has been cleared to prepare for an Oil Palm Plantation, dreadful alien plants from West Africa.  Although touted as environmentally sound, it is nothing of the sort, lethal to wildlife and highly damaging to the planet - see this report. The smell of the urea fertiliser is quite disgusting and permeates the air for miles around.
	Here you can see the result of illegal logging on a hillside.  Nothing is left!  Just a scar of the bare red earth, which will rapidly be washed away and erode to leave a desert and bare rock outcrops where once the jungle stood. In addition, the loggers make extra money by catching the fish in the rivers, drying and salting them and selling them in the market on their return.  How do they catch the fish?  They use highly toxic chemicals in the water - this not only kills the fish, but all the insect life which takes years to recover.
This is the village built deep in the forest, with a 20 mile access road, for migrants from Java.  A village like this spells the end for the forest - the access road provides transport for removing forest products and the people themselves, alien to this forest, distrust and fear it, removing it as fast as possible so they can plant rice.
	The devastating effect of logging.

 

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