Acacia avenue
Sep 10th 2009
From The Economist print edition
From The Economist print edition
How to save Indonesia's dwindling rainforests
Still Pictures
Where tigers roam no more
Where tigers roam no moreAS A spectacle, the four-hour drive to Teluk Binjai from Pekanbaru, capital of Riau province on the island of Sumatra, tends to the monochrome. Mile after mile of palm-oil plantation alternates with mile after mile of regimented lines of acacia trees, grown for pulpwood. Only an occasional banana grove or superannuated rubber plantation offers a spot of variety. Mountainously laden timber lorries ply the interprovincial highway, their loads of acacia logs almost brushing as they pass. In one direction is the mill of Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper, a subsidiary of APP, part of the Sinar Mas group; in the other that of APRIL, Sumatra's other big pulp-and-paper producer.
Off the main road, small patches of "natural" forest survive alongside the swathe of broad sandy corridor cut by a logging company. Some has been cleared fairly recently. Shrouded in white smoke, the peat soil still smoulders under the blackened tree-stumps. Gaunt and barkless, some trees still stand, like skeletal ghosts stalking a battlefield. Underneath, already oil palms are pushing up, planted by local farmers to feed Indonesia's latest commodity boom.
Off the main road, small patches of "natural" forest survive alongside the swathe of broad sandy corridor cut by a logging company. Some has been cleared fairly recently. Shrouded in white smoke, the peat soil still smoulders under the blackened tree-stumps. Gaunt and barkless, some trees still stand, like skeletal ghosts stalking a battlefield. Underneath, already oil palms are pushing up, planted by local farmers to feed Indonesia's latest commodity boom.
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