National Park looted

On Oct. 16, 2000, driving down from Banyuwedang toward Negara in Bali, just before reaching Melaya we saw about 200 people with axes and hatchets cutting and marking trees along the side of the road around the West Bali National Park. They were local people from different nearby villages, marking the names of their villages on the trees. We asked why they were doing this. They said they had been given the land to grow crops and build houses.

We did not believe them, but did not understand why such a huge operation was being overlooked by the local police and forestry officials. Just before reaching the road where the looting was being carried out, we saw about 10 uniformed forest rangers standing on the side of the road, chatting and laughing with each other. They were no further than 500 meters from the massive looting.

Having subsequently read articles in the Bali Post and The Jakarta Post about the looting of the national park's forests, I understood that it was not a one-time incident, but had happened on several occasions prior to this.

The proposed improvements voiced by the appropriate authorities seem to rarely be implemented at a grassroots level. If those involved in preventing such illegal activities in the national park are not sufficiently educated about the reasons for their duties, looting and illegal logging will go on until the last tree in the national park has disappeared.

As well as the problem of the failure to enforce the law due to the lack of education and sense of justice of the grassroots security authorities, it seems there are some people who get permits to establish tourist resorts in places where such construction is not allowed. How did they get these permits?

People who have lived in this country for more than three months can easily imagine the answer. That is another weakness of the institutions. The police try to enforce the law on the local people, who are poor and struggling for daily subsistence.

However, silent consent is given to the rich and powerful people who make money from tourism in exchange for abusing the law and the forest. Such double standards mean that illegal activities will continue. As the locals say: "The rich have stolen the trees, so we will steal the land before they steal everything."

SAEKO KANI

Tokyo, Japan