No action over vanishing forests
No action over vanishing forests
Wiryono, School of Forestry, University of Bengkulu
Indonesian forests are disappearing fast. Within less than a
decade, our lowland forest will no longer exist. Some of the
forests will make way for plantations, but most will probably
become only degraded woodland and scrub. Apart from the loss of
biological diversity, Indonesia will eventually have to import
timber to meet its increasing needs.
Everybody will have to pay the price. Severe droughts and
floods may occur more frequently, and the price of wood will
drastically increase. If our source of gasoline, kerosene and
diesel became depleted, people would rush out to stockpile it.
But do we worry? For most people, forests are not part of
their daily life. We haven't seemed to feel the impact of
deforestation. Although areas of production forest have decreased
considerably, timber is still available due to illegal logging.
The price is still within our reach. Many do not know that the
timber we buy most likely comes from illegal logging. Even if we
know, we may not care, not to mention caring about the loss of
biodiversity.
Foresters have seen the destruction with their own eyes. We
have felt its economic impact and seen the collapse of forest
concession companies. As foresters, we must also feel guilty as
we are the most responsible party to blame for this destruction.
But why don't foresters feel sad, guilty and worry? Simple:
We did not plant the forest. Most of our forests are naturally
grown. We did not spend our energy, time and money to plant,
irrigate, fertilize and protect them from diseases and pests.
Farmers would be very sad when a few hectares of their plantation
were destroyed by fire. Every year forest fires occur and the
total affected areas reach millions of hectares, yet we, the
foresters, do not sincerely feel sad, let alone guilty!
What we have done is only cut the trees down. Actually our
forests will naturally recover after harvesting if we follow the
sustained yield principle. This principle has been practiced for
hundreds of years ago by European foresters. Every student of
forestry knows this principle well. But we don't follow this
principle due to our greed. Of course we have tried to create
forest plantations, but the size is much too small compared to
the gigantic destruction we have done.
A few years from now our natural production forest will be
gone. Some of the protected forests may survive and small size
forest plantations may exist. But timber production, legally and
illegally will certainly drop. As timber becomes rare or has to
be imported, the price will soar. Only then will we be regretful,
and rush to plant trees and take care of them. But it will be too
late. It takes many years to produce timber. And it is impossible
to bring back the creatures that have become extinct.
We cannot afford this disaster. We must start acting now.
Plant trees and let them grow. It does not take sophisticated
technology or high-level sciences to grow forests. The failure of
our plantation project is not due to a lack of science and
technology, but a lack of ethics. Large parts of project funds is
corrupted instead of being used for planting and tending the
seedlings.
The first thing to do, therefore, is to eliminate corruption
in the forestry sector. We would be able to save what is left of
the natural forests and create considerable forest plantations --
or we could lose our forests and be headed for disaster.
The author has a PhD in ecology.