Preservation of nature's habitats is no longer a cause for the survival of the human race, but for the whole of our living planet. A story from Borneo.

Once upon a time, the Island of Borneo was a sanctuary of nature, protected by rugged shores from the outside, and by fierce headhunting tribes in the interior. The latter resisted for many centuries the attempt of any foreign colonization.

In such ways, nature remained intact, a sanctuary in the middle of exploding human populations. Gradually however, settlers made their ways into the island’s interior, but the migration’s ecological impact remained acceptable, for a while. Elephants, rhinoceros prowled through forests, their canopy inhabited by Orangutans. Even during the early 20th century, Borneo’s secluded interior (partly under Dutch, partly under Raja Brooke administration) remained largely pristine. In those days, the rivers were blue and fish abounded everywhere.

Then, finally, after “independence,” technical “progress,” reared its ugly head. The only remaining super-God, called money, caught up with Asia. Chinese merchants, motivated by greed, came to the island. What followed was a brutal deforestation, and today perhaps only 5 to 10 % of Borneo’s primary forests remain. Most likely, even these won’t be preserved, given the monumental demand for tropical hardwood felt throughout Asia.

The timber exports go mainly to China, orchestrated by several mainly Singaporean, Taiwanese (and mainland) Chinese tycoons. The rivers aren’t blue any longer, but yellow; fish are getting rare, the price is going up. Last week I visited one of the few access roads in Sarawak, that lead into the country’s interior. I counted 110 logging trucks, loaded up to the top with timber, passing every 50 seconds. This goes on for every day, eight hours, every year, until the end.

Tourists won’t see much of that. They book their trips and see beautiful national parks, with teaming wildlife and a lot of ecological propaganda. Like the tourists that visited Tibet’s remaining three or so intact monasteries (the other 115 were blasted, bulldozed and scraped), a few primary forest islands have been created in Borneo to fulfill the tourist’s dream of pristine tropical jungles.

What tourists don’t see is a landscape reminiscent of planet Mars, just behind the last line of trees that limits the view from every photo-spot corner from within the national parks. Perverse as this may sound, having these parks is still the better option, compared to cutting and killing the whole lot. Preserving 1% of the jungles and cutting 99% is better than cutting 100%.

Does the story of brutality, greed and habitat-destruction end here? No, it won’t. Two to three months every year, depleted primary forests, secondary forests and badlands are burning, to clear the land for large-scale palm plantations. Look at the attached satellite picture, on which you can see that entire counties, entire landscapes are burning. Smoke is filling the air for two, three months every year, and it seems to get only worse.

There are times, when the entire South China Sea is clogged with smoke, from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur, from Kuching to Singapore. This is nothing but a monstrous crime, and Indonesia is the main perpetrator. Hospitals are filling with people suffering from asthma and other respiratory diseases. Yet the relevant government authorities (I’m talking here mainly about Indonesia) couldn’t care less. They have filled their pockets with corruption money already, from the illegal sale of tropical hardwood, and why should they care about their children’s future, the planet’s future? The wind blows the haze away from them, and who needs a jungle? Having a bunch of luxury cars, mistresses, and wives is certainly more important to these corrupt officials.

Once the land is cleared, it is ready for the next step: Palm plantations take some five years to grow. They demand significant maintenance that is mostly taken care by unskilled labor, mostly from Java. These (predominantly Islamic) immigrants gradually encircle the remaining pockets of native Borneo (Christian, Animist and Chinese-Buddhist) populations. In some areas the autochthonous tribes find themselves as strangers in their own land- the forests have been sold, and with the timber left the spirit of the place, the tales of the past, the culture of a better humanity. Drugs are found even in the remotest village, where pretty young native women are lured into drug addiction, and, as a consequence, prostitution.

With agrochemicals polluting the rivers and aquifers, there is no point of staying behind. The young leave their rice paddies, the old stay behind to die.Where is this all leading? The answers are simple:·

• The climate will become hotter and drier, but also unstable. Furious rainstorm will temporarily flood the lands, cause massive erosion, and drain precious nutrients from the topsoil; these might eventually even affect large scale oil palm planting, and render them economically unviable.·
  
• The last precious wild forest animals will disappear.· Countless plant species will be eradicated.·
  
• The precious culture of the Borneo tribes will be restricted to a few museums and Disneyland-style entertainment facilities.· Poverty, disease, hunger, and death.What I’m describing here is a monumental machine of destruction, powered by greed, and operating at any conceivable level.