National Park looted

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