Tong Tana - Bruno Manser Fonds

Speaking of Wood:
Miscellany news
No relief for Tibet’s forests
rs – The deforesting of Tibet through the
People’s Republic of China rages on unhindered.
Daily more than a hundred cargo
trucks roll along the strategic east-west axis of
Lasha-Kangding-Chengdu passage downloaded
with big trunks for China. Most of the
trunks have diameters ranging from 40 cm to
70 cm – some even over 150 cm – and are often
longer than the cargo truck itself. The Chinese
army also takes part in the transportation
of the logs. Another method of transporting
the felled trunks from Tibet to East China is to
let them float down the rivers in their thousands.
Tibet’s primary forest, with its broad
variety of species, has been tagged by the
Han Chinese as the last “wood warehouse” in
China. Large mountainous areas in Tibet have
already been clearcut under generally primitive
logging methods. The wood taken out of
Tibet is used in China for any imaginable purpose:
house-constructing, ship building, paper
industry, heating – and for making chopsticks.
China satisfies it’s hunger for wood – since
after last year’s flood catastrophe a loggingban
for the upper course of the Yangze-river
was spoken – with timber from military occupied
regions and neighbouring countries.
Batak-family
Murder on Palawan
rg – On 23.3.99 Thomas Adona, an elderly,
highly respected representative of the
Batak people on Palawan (Philippines) was
murdered with a spear stab into the head by
a transient Philippino who was illegally in the
Batak forest looking for rattans. The murder
happened in the Mangapin-camp, a settlement
built by the state-authorities. Traditional
living of the Batak people is increasingly
dwindling. Non-local hunters, using rifles,
have drastically reduced the wild boar stock.
Even the collecting of rattans and Almasiga,
the fruit from Cauri trees was prohibited for
the Batak people through a governmental decision.
The collecting-licenses are now in the
hands of a few wealthy persons who hire people
from the slums of the cities to collect the
forest products. The murder of Thomas Adona
was one of their employees.
By now, practically all the Batak have compulsory
been settled down. They have been
christianised particularly by the “Korea Independent
Baptist One Way Church”, a sect
who drums into their heads that their culture is
bad, uncivilised and underdeveloped. Today,
only 9 Batak family groups do still live in the
traditional nomadic way in the rain forest.
Forest protector living with a tree
for the past year and a half
rg – Within the Redwood Forest, on the
west coast of America, Julia Hill, nicknamed
Julia “Butterfly” has been living within the
leafy folds of a thousand year old Redwood
for the past year and a half in a desperate
struggle to protect the ancient tree and the forest
from further destruction by the Maxxam Pacific
Lumber Company. An avid environmentalist,
Butterfly – who beseeches the protection
of the remaining forest – is supported by sympathisers
who bring her food, water and mail.
Cameroon bans export of rare
timber-species
rg – On july 1 st , 1999 Cameroon put an
export-ban for certain threatened timberspecies
into force. Not concerned by the new
regulation are Sapelli- and Ayoustrees, which
make about 50% of all trees felt in Cameroon.
To balance the financial losses caused by
declined exports, the government intents to
increase the export taxes. The main quantity
of Swiss tropical timber-imports origins in
Cameroon.
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