The Rainforests Being Cleared to Build Your R.V.
In recent years, tens of thousands of acres of forest have been razed in Indonesian Borneo, including this logging operation in November | Ulet Ifansasti for The New York Times
In an article by The New York Times, Sui-Lee Wee asserts that American demand for tropical wood that is used in motor homes is accelerating the disappearance of some of the world’s largest forests including the wetlands and ancient rainforests of Indonesia.
Word spread fast that heavy machinery had arrived in the ancient rainforest near the Indonesian village of Sungai Mata-Mata, an expanse on the western edge of the island of Borneo that is home to orangutans, clouded leopards and sun bears.
Flouting the law, the excavators began digging trenches to drain the area’s protected wetlands. Then came the logging crews, which cut down woodlands the size of more than 2,800 football fields, in just a few days.
It was an apocalyptic sight, said Samsidar, a regional forestry official who goes by one name, recalling the devastation he encountered two years ago. “The trees had turned into piles of wood.”
Not just any kind of wood, though. The trees were meranti, a species found mostly in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, and their tropical hardwood is of particular interest to one industry in the United States: manufacturers of motor homes.
