The stupidity of the man-made fire season in Indonesia is that the tropical hardwoods they could be farming are far more valuable then what they could do and are doing otherwise.
March 15, 2016
By Sarah Porter
Indonesia's so-called fire season (click here) last year was one of the worst on record, but the fires are back and burning out of control with a state of emergency already declared in one province.
Between about June and October, more than 100,000 fires burned down millions of hectares of fragile forest lands.
There were human and animal fatalities, and the economic damage was estimated to be more than $15bn (£10bn).
For more than 20 years these fires have been an annual occurrence, as farmers and agricultural companies clear Indonesia's forests and carbon-rich peatlands to make way for pulpwood, palm oil and rubber plantations, or for smaller scale subsistence farming....
There are books and papers written about this stupidity. (click here)
Some countries are not as stupid. Currently, tropical hardwoods are exceptionally rare in any commercial use. The reason for that is because the forests themselves are grossly mismanaged and frequently burned to the ground. There are still some tribes that use slash and burn as a life philosophy, but, the slash and burn in Indonesia is not a lifestyle so much as pure misguided short term greed.
There are some tropical forests still valued that attract wildlife, such as BIRDS, that tourists pay handsomely to take home pictures and videos of mating rituals. There are some tropical forests that are untouchable and scientists go in from time to time to mark some of the forest for harvest.
This picture to the right is a canopy of a Central American tropical rain forest. That is a complex system that cannot be replaced in it's carbon content by a Palm Tree Plantation. This is what is being torched by Indonesians that could not understand wealth of tropical hardwoods if they tried.
Indonesia has corruption within it's government. Indonesia focuses on drug trafficking and because of that focus the corruption within the government in places like The Forest Service is ignored at the very least.
It is March again in Indonesia and while the 'drug mules' are serving time in prison, the Bosses of the Tropical Rainforest are allowing the burning of precious forest that can only be replaced by scientists that understand those forests.
Nicaragua realized about a decade ago the gross error it made by allowing it's tropical rainforest to be sacrificed for cattle. See, the tourist money was far, far better than sides of beef. Nicaragua asked scientists to find a way to replace the rainforests. My understanding is those rainforests are among the most sought by tourists.
Nicaragua has some of the most extensive rainforests in Central America, (click here) even though most of the forests been cleared for agriculture, cattle grazing, and commercial logging, and by forest fires. The restructuring of the economy to repay foreign debts is said to be contributing to the destruction of the countries' natural resources. Overall, Nicaragua lost 21 percent of its forest cover between 1990 and 2005, though its deforestation rate has fallen 17 percent since the close of the 1990s.
In the mid- to late 1990s, the government granted a number of logging concessions that significantly increased forest degradation. By 1998 the loss of forest was substantial enough for Nicaragua's president to issue a decree banning the logging of cedar, mahogany, and bombox trees for a five-year period. The decree canceled existing logging permits for these timber species. Nevertheless, Nicaragua's forests continue to suffer from illegal logging operations. Today, by one estimate, illegal logging constitutes about half of total timber production. The trade feeds corruption and has known links to criminal syndicates and gangs....
These countries need militias to stop pouchers of wildlife and logging. Belize has a roving military group in its' forests because the country needs the wealth from it's tourism and approved logging.
When is Indonesia ever going to 'GET IT!'
