Ranting & Raving in Sumatra

Flying high above Sumatra from Jakarta, all looks good. Far below are dense forests, seemingly green, blue sky above yet, below there is a hint of haze down below. This is no tropical mist, this is the real and ever present smoke from illegal land reclamation, illegal logging and in general, corruption and carelessness by individuals who wish to line their pockets in the short term, rather than think about the legacy of this country for their children.

Hotspots abound, and these are not of the wi-fi kind. These are burning areas of land where the ground itself smoulders, often unattended for months, slowly and pervasively destroying all in its path, displacing the older inhabitants of this area, the irreplaceable wildlife, often forcing them into direct conflict with the originator of this problem – men.

Truth is Sumatra has two precious sources of wealth, Oil & Wood, both are running out, however, in a perverse way, the exploitation of Oil has not been as bad as the exploitation of the raw jungle.

All over the world, greenies claim the oil industry shows no care for the environment, raping and pillaging for the returns available from those reservoirs dotted around the globe.

In Sumatra, that may have been the case many years ago, however, Oil companies have stepped forward and are assuming a mantle of protector and, to an extent caring landlord on their concessions with major attempts having been made to help the land recover from the earlier invasions made when the wells in the area were first drilled.

Firstly, the jungle may return if left unbothered, you only need a little bit of jungle to allow this re-entry, the jungle will and does crawl back.

Secondly, only clear the minimum area required for the business at hand. Any more is a waste.

Thirdly, after what work you need done is finished, tidy up. Don’t leave your shit lying around and keep these nasty chemicals to a minimum.

Le Voila, ecologically friendly oil (well sort of)

On the other hand, become a logger, supplying the myriad of paper mills, pulp processors and home grown cottage wood working industries. Slash, cut, burn annihilate, destroy and don’t replant.

Many a quick fortune has been made in Sumatra, however after the logging and no replanting the question was asked what should be done with the empty land. The great idea was “let’s grow Palms for Palm Oil to supply the palm oil factories that we will build” . Oh dear, look at all these tree roots, better do something with them, ah- another idea, burn them.

The rainforest soil is more like peat than earth, centuries of arboreal foliage has fallen and deposited itself on the forest mat and has become almost a fuel.

Try telling that to the semi evolved simian sitting next to me on this flight who has taken all the space, farts, burps, slurps and spills his Nasi Goreang over me, narrowly missing the lap top and then, with a flourish of his toothpick, gives a second chance to cover me in his slime.

Truth be, he is proud that he has made money in the way described above, what he lacks in manners he makes up for in pointless boasting about how many square kilometres of palm he has, how he obtained this acreage and the disdain he holds for the forestry officials who ask him to tidy up his act, however, many a blind eye is turned with fat brown envelopes.

Which is what brought me onto the subject on the first place?

The tranquillity that you seem to see below is in fact hundreds of square acres of straight lines comprising Palm trees to satisfy the aforementioned industry. As this industry grows, more acreage is required and more slash and burn takes place leaving the atmosphere above what used to be pristine rainforest more like the streets of Jakarta with these clouds of ash drifting throughout South East Asia and polluting other nations into the bargain.

As with all peoples in the world, Indonesians need to make money, however, after many many years of corruption at both major and minor levels, the mechanics of normal business routine and the wheels of commerce have been so badly tarnished that without some form of grease they will seize and nothing will happen at all.

This grease has prevented the formation of any form of sustainable resource group as the brown envelopes are bigger carrots to businessmen and officials than the threatened snarl from public bodies trying to change both the mind set of the perpetrators and save a huge natural resource at the same time.

Later, on my way to meetings within the heart of Riau Province, the landscape turned almost desert like. Yes there were palm oil trees, laid out like parade soldiers, however, there was an arid quality to the road and forest behind, dust clouds blew, smoke permeated everywhere and the few last arboreal giants stood naked, without leaves, merely waiting, towering above the non native palms to fall to their graves, because in truth they were already dead, and worse, unlikely to ever return.

If the Indonesians cannot see what is happening, or worse, are not aware that their children will only have memories of these once great jungles, I do indeed shed a tear for them, however, I cannot forgive them as what they are taking from the world is not theirs to take.