Deforestation

[Terry]

I guess as one gets older, one notices more and more just how our world is being wrecked by the greedy.

Every time I travel up to Bangkok (normally once - sometimes twice a week), I cannot help but notice the number of 10 wheel trucks (some with trailers) hauling logs to Bangkok and onwards I guess.

This morning I counted no less than 23 such vehicles during my 2 1/2 hour drive just between Hua Hin and BKK.

How many more are on the road elsewhere?
Every day?

It belies belief the amount of timber being 'cropped'

Some are large mature trees, but most seem to be no more than a few inches or cm in diameter. Surely this is not from renewable sources?

I was once told that most of this lumber originates in Sumatra, is then shipped across to Malaysia where it commences it's journey - for the most part illegaly it seems - North to the furniture factories of Thailand.

There are some futile attempts to cover the cargo with tattered tarpaulins but it is always obvious what the cargo is.

Am I being neurotic or am I getting too sensitive?

Answers in a brown envelope please! - hopefully recyclable!!!!!!!

[richard]

It seems a shame

Saving grace is that is coming from Sumatra not Thailand

Bit selfish I know but when I visit the wifes family north east of Khon Kaen, the police are very strict about the felling of trees to make charcoal

They carry on though (under cover) as the sale of charcoal is food on the table for the kids

As you well know the family comes way way ahead of environmental issues

[STEVE G]

I know what you mean Richard; last month my partner was telling me she got some guys to cut down a tree in the night to make us a new set of gates. Apparently it was already dead though so I won’t take any blame for accelerating the demise of the planet, but as you say you’re not going to stop that sort of thing on people’s farms.
This is nothing to what goes on in Indonesia where in the six years I was living there I saw huge expanses of forest stripped to bare mud.

[JimmyGreaves]

Need to look at our own back garden. Soi 102 used to be full of trees as you drive down on the right side only 3 years ago, some I would imagine over 100 years old. The developers got in and slashed the lot. Bloody crime in my eyes.

The same thing is happening all over Hua Hin. Progress my Arse!

[richard]

JG your right

AND look at the devastation on Phuket and Samui (who now want a second airport, will it fit?)?

Bangkok's situ is slightly different. High rise condos are usually on slum sites except the new airport but that will be under water in 10 years time. Possibly half of Bangkok too!!

Khon Kaen and surrounding villages have so far not been affected but it will come. One cannot halt the effect of so called progress

[lomuamart]

This would have been about 12 years ago, but I'll never forget the debate going on in The Bangkok Post about the road widening between Cha-Am and HH. I was reading it on the internet back in the UK at that time.
They already had a bypass road from Cha-Am to Pranburi, so why did they have to evict loads of people from CA to HH? And all the trees, some hundreds of years old were chopped down in the name of development. I'll never forget that "debate".
Needless to say, the environmentalists lost and we now have this "superhighway" from BKK to hell
And they still can't find anywhere to park during the week, let alone weekends.
Oh well, it's their country and all that. Now where's my beer and some reggae music?

[richard]

I think the problem is worldwide and there is no way you or I or anyone else for that matter are going to avert the greed of developers.

Politicians are a bunch of FAT CAT WAN***S who are usually in on the deal anyway

[buksida]

I think a lot of this logging is also done in Burma, just go to the border and you'll see trucks coming over every few minutes.

Burma are also still fishing using dynamite, a bit unsettling when you're diving and needless to say the marine life really doesnt like it.

[Vital Spark]

Once upon a a time there was a lovely mini-mountain outside our village. It was covered with many trees and, I guess, many insects, birds, and other wildlife had a happy life there.

One day a big monster came along and (with it's huge teeth) ate all the vegetation on the hill. Within one month this lovely green hill has become a brown mound.

The 360's are still on top of the mound flattening it out. It's near a temple, so I guess some kind of 'Buddhist' temple is going to be build on this now naked and ugly mound of soil. Why? How much money is this costing, and how much of the local wildlife have they destroyed in the process?

Grrrr.

V.S.

[Jockey]

Humans are strange. Build an all-wooden house and the feeling and marketing is "back-to-nature". Not "raper of the earth" Wear leather shoes. Slaughter and treat animals inhumanely. Pour chemicals down the toilet. Lets face it - we are a nasty lot.

[deepee]

We were down Khao Lak way last November and took a trip inland not along the main tourist routes but out amongst the back blocks . Seemed every bend in the road revealed yet another bare hill completely wiped of all vegetation. " Many din taloms"( landslides) our local friend told us as we peered up at some alarmingly steep slopes. No wonder we thought considering the rainfall they get down that way
We were told this was all being done for new rubber plantations .He too thought it was mainly all about getting to the forest timbers.

[margaretcarnes]

From what I've seen of the timber trucks going North they run 24 hours a day up from Malaysia, and yes, some of the logs are pathetically thin. I hate to see unecessary logging, especially of young trees, and in the UK we are now trying to reverse the mindless culling of hedgerows with the inevitable loss of wildlife.
But people need houses, so its wood versus brick I guess, with the counter arguement about the harm to the environment of producing clay, slate, and UPVC materials.
I'm trying to do my bit by creating a wildlife friendly garden at the moment, with no chemical feed. Some of the so called 'wild' flowers such as poppies are being left to do their own thing, and I've used reclaimed bricks to edge it. 'Mrs Bucket' next door doesn't seem to like it much!

[santa]

The narrow logs are from rubber tree plantations, and are mainly used for chairs etc. THE FORESTS WERE CUT DOWN FOR PLANTATIONS LONG AGO (USUALLY). Sorry about the capitals, my error, didn't mean to shout. Once the trees grow out of their sappling stage they produce less rubber, so they are cut down. The bigger stuff is almost all brought in illegally from Burma. Laos still is mainly forest, as Thailand was 50 years ago. The Lao government are serious about banning exports of timber unless it is made into something- at least flooring or garden furniture. That's not to say a lot doesn't get floated across the Mekong.

[margaretcarnes]

Right, thanks for that Santa. I didn't know about the rubber tree thing. At least Lao is trying to do something! I suppose you can understand (though not condone) the Burmese for trying to make a buck, but I've seen trucks at night carrying a mix of timber sizes which would seem to indicate that maybe the Burmese - or others (Indonesia was mentioned earlier) are not abiding by rules?

[santa]

Myanmar has no rules, or at least enforces none. Logs also come from areas controlled by Karen or other armies. I can't see logs coming from Indonesia, they export direct to cuntries outside the region, and plenty comes into Thailandfrom Myanmar