Photo by Rhiya Trivedi, Lamon Satong, West Kalimantan, Indonesia
Paradoxes of Life in West Borneo’s Rainforest
Scars of deforestation remain in Lamon Satong, West Kalimantan, nearly 20 years after illegal timber production wiped out old growth forest on the perimeter of Gunung Palung National Park
palm oil interests competing for land for plantations to meet growing international demand have sabotaged indigenous populations attempting to grow their own wood, and destruction within the forests is occurring at too rapidly for smallscale agro-forestry to keep up anyway. Bordering villages are devastatingly poor. Low rates of literacy and limited access to affordable health services have resulted in large families with even larger needs. Vegetable farming and illegal logging are the only potential sources of household income. Officials throughout the National Park Office, Forestry Ministry and Police Service are notoriously corrupt, taking money from logging financiers to ignore, and sometimes even bolster the 30
contraband behavior. Adding fuel to fire, Chinese demand for exotic foreign proteins has incentivized the hunting of the sun bear, clouded leopard, mouse deer and other precious fauna. The forests of Indonesian Borneo are disappearing at the intersection of poverty, corruption and international market pressures. The results: declining biodiversity of charasmatic megafauna, like orangutans, rising rates of annual greenhouse gas emissions and associated climactic changes, and diminished ecosystem services. The situation screams for preferential options—those that do not present local people with the false choice of either preserving their natural environment or putting food on the table.