SE Asia’s forests: Development’s victims | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent

SE Asia’s forests: Development’s victims | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent
Graham Land May 22, 2013

One of the world’s hotbeds of biodiversity, the forestland of Southeast Asia, is being sacrificed on the altar of development and global capitalism.

A spate of all but unrestrained development projects across SE Asia – from Burma to Vietnam to Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos – is spelling doom for the region’s tropical forests and the uniquely rich ecosystems they support.

Near Mong La, Burma. Pic: Isabel Esterman (Flickr CC)

What’s replacing these forests varies: agricultural projects like coffee and palm plantations, outright deforestation for timber and paper, mining and infrastructure projects like roads or hydropower plants. Some of the deforestation is legal and some illegal. The results are the same: the loss of carbon sinks coupled with the release of astronomical amounts of CO2, the displacement of local peoples, habitat destruction and a staggering loss of biodiversity.
From the Guardian and Yale 360:

The scope of the forest loss was highlighted earlier this month by the conservation group WWF, which noted that from 1973, near the end of the Vietnam War, to 2009, the greater Mekong region lost nearly one-third of its remaining forest cover. Vietnam and Thailand suffered the most forest destruction, each losing 43 percent of their forest cover, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by WWF.

In Indonesia’s Aceh province, home to the largest range of biodiversity in the Asia-Pacific region, a proposal to transform protected forestland into areas for development has met with a global outcry and a petition to save the forests.
From the Jakarta Post:

Data from the Coalition of Aceh Rainforest Movements said that the new spatial planning rules would allow the conversion of around 1.2 million hectares of Aceh’s existing 3.78 million hectares of protected forests into non-forest areas, production forests as well as roads.

Although development in Asia does look to be unstoppable no matter what the cost, there are ways to mitigate deforestation, species loss and humanitarian crises while bolstering conservation. Petitions like the above are one such effort. Supporting conservation groups is another. Pressuring companies like Asia Pulp and Paper does seem to have some effect.
From Australia’s ABC News:

It is partly this thinking which led the Indonesian business Asian Pulp and Paper (APP) to boldly announce in February that it would be ending all deforestation within its supply chain. The announcement came after Greenpeace and other NGOs had undertaken an international campaign focused on their environmental performance and particularly their role in exploiting the habitat of charismatic fauna such as the Sumatran Tiger, Orangutan and rare Sumatran Rhino. While keeping a watchful eye on how the policy is implemented, Greenpeace has now called off the campaign.

In an age of business dominated by image and branding, at least consumers and activists still have some tactics that can influence the practices of giant corporations.

Ulu Masen forest, Aceh, Indonesia. Pic: Abbie Trayler-Smith / Panos Pictures / Department for International Development (DFID)