Pass the buck, and let the Rupiah roll in.

What is the value of this piece of land in it's current state?
Is it better to leave it as wasteland or to plant a forest on it? 

Scrubland and village complex near Bohorok, not far from Bukit Lawang which borders the Leuser Rainforest Ecosystem in  North Sumatra

Image © otherworldadventures 2011, with permission.


It has been a surprising week for me. I openly attacked a veteran eco-activist turned corporate consultant because I dislike the industry that he now represents. It was an emotive letter and I got what I deserved, I guess. He fought back, challenging me to read his company, Greenspirit's, last report which defends the expansion of pulp-wood plantations in Sumatra.
They are very defensive but it is cleverly written and they make some strong arguments and have caused me to examine whether ecology and economy can 
exist side by side.


The plantation companies insist that they can..but can they and the government be trusted? 
The environmental groups insist that they cannot and that blind greed and destruction are the only cause and effect.. but are they deliberately obtuse and not even trying to see the big picture?


Logging companies' point of view-
http://www.scribd.com/doc/42850998/Plantation-Forestry-in-Indonesia-The-Greenspirit-Strategies-Perspective
Greenpeace's point of view-
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/reports/SinarMas-APP/


I need a few days of research and digestion before I can write anything objectively :)


I'll leave you with this guy who I photographed in the wild in Gunung Leuser National Park June 2009

Putting a Price on Nature

Conservation doesn't 
come cheap.


An Indonesian coin worth 100 Rupiah dated 1978 declares "Hutan Untuk Kesejahteraan" or 'Forestry for Prosperity.'


Given the level of 'prosperity' seen on the streets of Sumatra 33 years later, it obviously hasn't provided the average Indonesian with much wealth or prosperity.


All that foreign companies have done is to make themselves wealthy and demonstrate to Indonesian villagers that there is a lucrative market for illegal hardwood timber which is easily exploited.

The Start of A Long and Unfamiliar Road

I am ever a stranger in this very familiar country, Indonesia..

Every time I leave my home it's clear to only me, that no matter how many years pass and how comfortable I become with living here, it will always be assumed by Indonesian people that I am an outsider, a tourist, in a place that I completely, and indefinitely, consider to be my home. There's no big 'graduation from Englishman to Indonesian' ceremony, no insignia or tattoo to wear that shows locals that one has committed an unquantifiable amount of ones time, energy, life to their country and its people, in my case its young people in my classrooms. 

Not that it matters, of course..I still love this enormous, beautiful, mixed-up country that has given me a loving wife and a wonderful daughter and son..the country of "Hello Mister", of welcoming and accepting people, the country whose natural beauty never let me leave and never fails to surprise and excite and make you feel like you have just arrived with a huge rucksack and way too much fancy gear. 

'No nation is perfect', and for no nation would this be more true than for Indonesia. However, many of its woes are beyond my comprehension and, more than that, as a foreigner I would be mistaken to believe that they are any of my business. I also refuse to blog for blogging's sake and do not suppose that I am talented or witty enough to deserve a following for stories about my favorite Pizza restaurant or which side of the bed I got up on today. (*)


However, I do wish to make one Indonesian woe, my business: 

The striving for conservation and sustaining of pioneer flora and fauna biodiversity within the vast and dense forest and mangrove ecosystems on the spectacular island of Sumatera (**). That is; protecting the forests in their 'original state',
something that caught my attention when I first visited the rainforest of Aceh in 2001 and I have been unable to forget. 

In Indonesia things often get hazy and lost in translation, even though it is democratic and people embrace freedom of speech and of press, the language is a serious barrier and cultural ethics and traditions, which are sometimes unintelligible to foreigners, often shape decision-making processes. The public have much less tolerance for corruption and nepotism, but they remain ever-present obstacles. In my opinion, education and reliable information is a most valuable contribution, to enable adults and children to understand the issues involved and to formulate their own opinions. 

To this end, and as much for my own development as for any reason, I endeavour to analyse and report as best I can on the changes and activities, both positive and negative, in my immediate environment of the Mount Leuser National Park, and other parks in Aceh, Riau (***) and West Sumatra which are of immense environmental importance, both locally and on a global scale. 


(*) Papa Rons, and the right-hand side.
(**) Old spelling of Sumatra
(***) Aceh - the Northernmost province of Sumatra.
       Riau - the Eastern part of Sumatra opposite Singapore 
       and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.