The Rainforest Reality

As I drove from Mt Kinabalu to the town of Sandakan (where the Orangutan sanctuary is), I quickly noticed that the roads were lined with what seemed to be an endless palm tree forest. Literally, for 3 and 1/2 hours of driving I only saw plam trees. At first, I thought they were naturally occurring and quite beautiful - I mean who doesn't love plam trees? They are part of the quintessential tropical vacation: lazing on the white sand beach with the breeze blowing through the palm trees' leaves with a cocktail in hand... Who doesn't dream of that scene as they prepare for their beach vacation? However, as I continued to watch them fly by from the bus window, I realized they were perfectly spaced apart and all at the same age of maturity. Typically, such perfection doesn't occur in the forests of nature, and I realized that these were the plam oil plantations I had read about before coming to Borneo. Malaysia is the world's second biggest exporter of palm oil, (first - Indonesia, who owns the other two-thirds of Borneo island... what do you think I'd see if I drove around the Indonesian part of Borneo?).

I mention this because for years I've heard about the "destruction of the rainforest", but it's never really meant anything. Obviously, I know it's a bad thing and that it's causing the loss of countless flora and fauna species, but could I really understand it as I read about it in my National Geographic magazine (printed on glossy-paper) from my air-conditioned living room in Canada (or even more absurd - my heated living room as the snow accumulated outside)? What was the tropical rainforest to me? Even when I went to the Peruvian Amazon the rainforest was a lush place, full of life and untouched by the hand of man. All looked in good order there.

The palm oil plantations in Borneo, on the other hand, have given me poignant proof that we are destroying the rainforests. At first, I was sad to see the plam trees, after a few hours I was scared at the sheer number and size of the plantations - on the upcrest of a hill looking down, all one can see is palm trees for kilometres around. The next day, as we drove from Sandakan into the jungle, again the roads were lined with plam trees. The palm trees went almost right up to the river - the government has forced a small buffer zone along the river that can't be planted. Even with the buffer zone sometimes I could see the plantations in the distance from the "jungle". At this point, I was just disappointed (remember how your parents used to do that to you "We aren't mad Russell, we're just disappointed... ouch). The forest, although still teeming with life and a great adventure, wasn't nearly as thick and exotic as the Amazon experience I had.

Now, some palm oil is used as a biofuel - but only a fraction of it, and how are we improving the situation if we cut down the rainforest as a way to combat our dependency on fossil fuels? It's like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul - the debt remains and the interest is still accumulating. I obviously have no answers, but I wanted to put this out there to remind myself of what I saw on my drives in Borneo, and hopefully make it a little more real for everyone else.