It was nearing the end of the afternoon as they sat talking and drinking beer in a small eating-house, on the road that twisted down from the dam. They had spent the day visiting the sad remains of the plantations that had been started three years earlier. The plantations had been abandoned, far from the prying eyes of outsiders, a sinister family secret, hidden from all, that is with the exception of John Ennis, who had been an unwitting accomplice.
Ohlsson slurped his beer directly from the bottle; it was his third; Yoshimura looked at Ohlsson through his thick glasses, a strange look, as though he was inspecting a curious creature.
‘The world’s population already exceeds six billion and doesn’t look like it’s going to stop growing for anybody, but let me tell you that the lungs of this planet are shrinking at an incredibly alarming speed,’ he paused as if he had an inspiration, ‘even worse than mine!’
‘What’s new Lars?’ said Ennis, as though he were needling him.
‘Every single year, forty million acres of forest disappear, that’s an area about the size of England and Wales if you want to know!’
‘No, not today.’
Marcillac and Suarez pretended to ignore them; it had been a long hot day.
Ohlsson laboured on as usual, oblivious to Ennis’ remarks.
‘People should understand that forests are a fundamental link to our planets ecological system, they produce our oxygen, play a vital role in the way our water is recycled.’
He stood up and fumbled his way out to the back, his hand on his fly. They could hear him shouting behind the thin wall of platted palm leaves and the splashing, as he urinated into the planks.
‘The disappearance of the vegetation leads to soil erosion and floods,’ he mumbled to himself as he observed the results of his efforts.
‘Why don’t you tell him to calm down a bit John,’ said Marcillac, he had enough of Lars Ohlsson’s antics for one day.
‘Leave him alone he’s okay.’
‘He’s right though, if you stop joking it’s the forests that provide home and shelter to wild life, its the forests that support the genetic diversity and heritage of the planet,’ said Yoshimura, moping as if he had been infected by the depressing atmosphere that had sunk over them.
‘Where’s that fucking driver!’ said Suarez, ‘we’re not going to stay here all day.’
Their Nissan had broken down and the driver had been gone for more than an hour, he had disappeared on the back of a motorbike that he had waved down.
‘Why don’t we talk about something serious then.’
‘We are, what Lars was saying is that wood is an important source of energy and raw materials, especially in the less developed areas of the globe, like here.’
‘We know that were not ignoramuses.’
‘Well maybe Thierry doesn’t know it all,’ he said looking in Boisnier’s direction.
Boisnier shrugged his shoulders and lit up an almost half broken Bentoel that he pulled from his multi-pocketed shirt.
‘I don’t mind, after all I’m here to learn something.’
‘Well what about this for a fact, every year almost two billion cubic metres are harvested by man for fuel, and about the same quantity for industrial and household purposes?’ said Marcillac.
Ohlsson came back in and sat down, he wiped his brow and looked at his watch.
‘Not only that, but more than two hundred million people live in the rainforests around the world,’ Yoshimura chipped in.
‘It’s true what he’s saying, forests and forest products play a primary role, supplying basic human needs of whole populations, not to speak of their contribution to the national economy of most developing countries like here,’ he waved his hand vaguely over his shoulder.
Ennis caught a glimpse from the side of his eye of the serving girl, who was watching them wide eyed, half out of curiosity and half out of fear, as they shouted angrily and swigged their beer.
‘A great many of man’s basic needs are traditionally provided by forests; fuel wood, food, fodder, timber and medical products. The forests even provide direct and indirect revenues from resources and tourism.’
Suarez joined in; ‘As a professional forester, I endorse that, properly managed forests provide safeguards against damage to the environment, by that I mean soil, climate and water resources.’
‘Well said!’ Ohlsson shouted tapping him on the shoulder; ‘If you can’t beat the bastards join them.’
‘Shut up for Christ’s sake, be serious for a moment, you know there’s plenty of international programmes that exist to manage forest resources.’
‘Such as what for example?’ asked Boisnier showing interest.
‘Such as the World Bank, the UNDP and other organisations. They use expatriate specialists in fields such as forestry, pollution control, planning and industrial advisers, with local experts in ecology, environment and socio-economics,’ said Marcillac.
‘Well coming back to my business, the world consumption of wood for the pulp and paper industry was five hundred million cubic meters a decade ago, now its soon expected to reach seven hundred million that’s a growth rate of one percent a year,’ said Ennis
‘Good for you John, you’ll get the anti-greens man of the year award,’ said Ohlsson, nursing his beer.
‘All right Lars, you can talk, you’re the one who should try to be to be serious for a moment!’
‘Get stuffed John, in your traditional wood producing countries in the northern hemisphere, you’ve reached the maximum cutting rate for many reasons.’
‘They’re not mine, but go on anyway!’
‘The main problem is the lack of regeneration in Canada, or development of sylvaculture in the USA. In Western Europe forest damage due to pollution has limited production.’
‘What about Scandinavia?’ said Marcillac looking at Ohlsson.
‘What about it, I’m not ashamed to point the finger at home. Today in ecology conscious Scandinavia, owners no longer want to sell their wood or build new polluting mills.’
‘Yeah, so they’re exporting their pollution, sweeping it under the carpet.’
Suarez looked at his watch; there was no sign of their driver. He made a sign to the girl for another round of beer. It was hot; it looked as though a storm was brewing up. There were flashes in the darkening sky as night was falling.
They continued their argument becoming increasingly irritable with their wait; the novelty of the bar had worn off as the lights attracted swarms of insects.
‘We in South America have had good results with fast growing eucalyptus which have been successfully introduced in plantations,’ said Suarez.
‘Yes, but that required lots of fertilisers that pollutes ground water and rivers, not to talk of the insecticides and weed killers.’
‘What I would like to know, being fairly ignorant in these matters, is, when did all this begin?’ said Boisnier.
Ohlsson taking the cue jumped in, it was one of his favourite subjects.
‘Ah, that’s a good question, when did it all start? Well Thierry, it goes back a long way, ever since primitive man was a hunter or gathering food in the forest. He didn’t chop down trees, except perhaps to make his dugouts for the river, but when he started to cultivate the soil about ten thousand years ago it was the start of deforestation!’
There was a silence, they listened, and then they could hear the first drops of rain on the platted palm leaf roof.
‘When the first farmers started to grow cereals and other crops, they needed to clear the forest to make fields, they used fire to clear the forest in prehistoric times and they’re still doing it today. It was and still is an efficient method for poor peoples with simple means.’
He looked at Boisnier to see the effect, who simply nodded encouraging him to continue.
‘In the beginning, the population of the planet was very low, so the effect of clearing the forest was relatively unimportant. Between 400 BC and 800 AD the world’s population was somewhere
between 150 to 250 million, compared with more than 6,000 million today, and double that in fifty more years!’
‘Back then, the population was concentrated in the regions where the great civilisations were born, in the eastern Mediterranean, in India and China.
‘Those civilisations, with their agricultural societies, caused the first great large scale deforestation on the earth, from Gibraltar to Southern China. Many of those cradles of early civilisations are buried today under the sand of deserts!’
‘What about today, what’s the rate of deforestation, do you agree with Lars?’
‘That’s a difficult question! The estimations are lousy, there’s no reliable systematic monitoring, and everybody lies!’
‘Don’t ask me!’
‘Oh!’
‘No, being serious, this is because in most poor developing countries, forestry industries are vital sources of revenue, so they give false information. They want to avoid criticism and upsetting public opinion at home, and especially abroad in the industrial countries, who either give them aid or buy their timber.’
‘What are the statistics on deforestation, I mean how fast is it happening?’ said Boisnier.
‘According to our estimates we reckon that about six hundred million hectares were lost between 1976 and now, that’s around twenty two million a year!’
‘That’s incredible?’
‘You have to realise that the main reason for deforestation is the pressure on forests by growing populations, they need to clear land for agriculture, its the old story of uncontrolled shifting cultivation, plus the ever increasing demand for fuel wood and timber.’
The light flickered; a swarm of insects circled the lamps that swayed in the draft pushed in by the coming storm. The humidity must have reached saturation point, the faces glistened in the weak light. They took on a haggard appearance, as the strain of the day and their long wait started to tell.
‘Not only that, there’s also a huge increase in livestock and grazing, plus the need for new land for urban and rural settlements.’
Ennis smiled perking up, and taking advantage of Ohlsson’s argument to demonstrate his industry was far from being the sole party to blame for the damage caused to forestlands. ‘So you agree it’s not industry that does the most damage, more than half of the forests cleared in the tropics every year are the result of shifting cultivation by the landless farmers.’
‘I don’t disagree with that John,’ said Ohlsson, ‘In countries like Indonesia, Brazil, India, where the number of subsistence farmers grows uncontrollably, the available cleared arable land decreases and so more new forest areas are cleared.
‘It’s a fact that clearing forests for agriculture and resettlement is the second most important cause of deforestation. All of those poor subsistence farmers and villagers totally depend on wood as a source of energy for cooking and other needs, what else can they use? That’s the third most important cause of deforestation and forest degradation.’
‘Can’t this be stopped?’
‘Clear-cutting for shifting cultivation means instant deforestation, perhaps it could be stopped, but that’s not the main problem, most deforestation happens gradually. Over grazing, repetitive burning for grazing and unauthorised felling of timber leads to deforestation.
‘It’s galloping demography. For example do you know that the growth rate of the total population in the tropical countries from 1975 to the present has been more than two and a half percent each year? The population pressure is the greatest disaster of all. In tropical forest countries, it has doubled over that period of time with the developing countries accounting for ninety percent of that increase.
‘In the developing countries already one billion people are living below subsistence level on livestock that is grazing freely, or on crops that are grown by shifting cultivation.’
‘You only have to look at the Philippines,’ interrupted Ennis.
‘Yes. In the Philippines in 1800, the forest coverage was ninety five percent and the population two million, two centuries later it’s the reverse, the forest is two percent and the population ninety five million.’
‘A human disaster!’
They sat wearily pondering the troubles of the world, forgetting for a moment their own minor problems. The noise of a vehicle approaching snapped them out of their stupor. Then they saw the headlights through the trees at the bend of the road and a minibus bumped into view. There was a cheer and they collected their bags as Ennis dug into his pocket to pay for their food and drinks.
They crowded into the minibus; it was cramped and lurched off at a slow place on the wet road that was criss-crossed by streams of muddy water that sparkled in the headlights.
In the background Ohlsson droned on. Ennis doubted if any of the others were listening. Then there was silence, just the rain battering the windscreen and the motor whinning each time they surged through a torrent that flowed across their road.
They were woken up by lights of Martarpura ahead announcing they would be back to the relative comfort of their hotel in Bandjarmasin in twenty minutes or so.
A GAMBLER