Wastelands
Am back in the Penh now. Travelled back swiftly on Tuesday afternoon in the back of a minibus. The first half in the company of a very chatty Cambodian student and the second half, next to a very vomity travel sick woman, poor love.
What struck me on the way there and more so on the way back was the frequent wastelands of burnt down trees...
....which I got to see close up during one of the days of moto meandering.....
A very sad sight. And one becoming all the more common with the advance of "development" and economic growth:
Road development in Mondulkiri has been underway since the late 90s, but has accelerated recently with the rapid development of Cambodia’s economy and increased security after decades of conflict. People are moving in from the outside to claim land and clear the forests to make way for plantation crops like rubber. Illegal logging of valuable timber trees further damages the landscape and threatens the livelihoods of indigenous communities who live here.
http://www.wcs.org/saving-wild-places/asia/southern-mondulkiri-cambodia.aspx
Across Cambodia in the last 20 years, commercial logging, agricultural expansion, and shifting cultivation for harvesting charcoal and fuelwood have resulted in the loss of a further 1.4 million ha of forest. According to the FAO, the impacts of industrial harvesting, both legal and illegal, has put much more pressure on the forests than in most other developing countries.
http://www.illegal-logging.info/approach.php?a_id=83
So yeah, sad to leave Mondulkiri on a bum note in some ways. It's been a great time and I feel well rested. But like anywhere in this country, it's another reminder of the bitter-sweetness of life here.......the need to appreciate beauty-in-the-moment.....and to keep on keeping on when the backdrop gets ugly.
What struck me on the way there and more so on the way back was the frequent wastelands of burnt down trees...
....which I got to see close up during one of the days of moto meandering.....
A very sad sight. And one becoming all the more common with the advance of "development" and economic growth:
Road development in Mondulkiri has been underway since the late 90s, but has accelerated recently with the rapid development of Cambodia’s economy and increased security after decades of conflict. People are moving in from the outside to claim land and clear the forests to make way for plantation crops like rubber. Illegal logging of valuable timber trees further damages the landscape and threatens the livelihoods of indigenous communities who live here.
http://www.wcs.org/saving-wild-places/asia/southern-mondulkiri-cambodia.aspx
Across Cambodia in the last 20 years, commercial logging, agricultural expansion, and shifting cultivation for harvesting charcoal and fuelwood have resulted in the loss of a further 1.4 million ha of forest. According to the FAO, the impacts of industrial harvesting, both legal and illegal, has put much more pressure on the forests than in most other developing countries.
http://www.illegal-logging.info/approach.php?a_id=83
So yeah, sad to leave Mondulkiri on a bum note in some ways. It's been a great time and I feel well rested. But like anywhere in this country, it's another reminder of the bitter-sweetness of life here.......the need to appreciate beauty-in-the-moment.....and to keep on keeping on when the backdrop gets ugly.
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