A Note on Borneo

The island of Borneo has long contained connotations of grandeur and mystery. It is one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, which draws both scientists and tourists from around the globe. It is also rich in natural resources, which brings the corporations which, together with the governments, seem hell-bent on sucking the island dry.

In the province of East Kalimantan in Indonesia almost every large city is a product of natural resource exploitation: Balikpapan has the off-shore oil rigs and the international corporations to match, Samarinda collects all of the giant hardwood logs from upriver, Berau is home to coal. Even lazy Sangatta, on the edge of Kutai National Park, thrives because of the large coal mine. It was strange to find ourselves hiking through the forest, searching for organ-utan with the sounds of coal mining machinery in the distance.

Today we just arrived in the Malaysian state of Sabah, where the forest is being logged as rapidly as possible and palm oil plantations are springing up in its wake. We had heard that it was nothing but palms, but we were still shocked to discovery the actual extent of the massive plantations. We took a 2 hour drive today and there weren't any towns or houses along the road, but there were rows upon rows of palms. It almost makes me yearn for the slash and burn destruction we saw in Indonesia. At least then it was local farmers needing the land to feed their families and the forest was never far off in the distance.