A Tree Falls in Borneo: the Global Effects of Tropical Deforestation

As I stood on the viewpoint, the scene elicited all the expected emotions—anger, sadness, and hopelessness. The one I hadn’t quite anticipated was shock. I felt I had adequately prepared myself for my work with a forest conservation organization, having sifted through paper after paper citing the devastating statistics: “6 football fields a minute,” “56 percent of lowland forests lost.” Yet, no statistic could impress upon me the magnitude of the loss of Borneo’s forests as deeply as seeing it with my own eyes.
Just north of the city of Sangatta in the Indonesia province of East Kalimantan, I gazed out over an area recently cleared to for PT. Kaltim Prima Coal, in an effort to create one of the largest open pit coal mines in the world. Splinters of wood scattered over the brown, barren landscape like a handful of toothpicks were the only remnants of the forest’s former glory.
During my time spent in Borneo learning about the complex economic, social, and political landscape of forest conservation, that image of that cleared land always stuck with me. Seeing it for myself had made an impact that no photo or string of numbers could. What bothered me was how few people would have the same opportunity. Those who have the power to make a difference, consumers back home in North America, may never feel the importance of their choices the same way I did that day.