SELLING VIRGINS IN INDONESIA.

Move over sunshine and all things blue, more dirty hazy days may be on the way. This time the haze will not be from land raped Sumatra but from the Indonesia side of Borneo. After pillaging and polluting their land, growing economic power and enviroment polluter China will finance the "action" to cultivate 5 million acres of oil palm trees in the midst of pristine jungle. Well connected Indonesian businessmen in the lumber industry, amply greased goverment officers from both sides (of the border?) and China will benefit. Malaysian will be left wearing surgical masks and staring at grey skies, an a added bonus for East Malaysians, silted brown rivers.
The Malaysian goverment will still be talking about good neighbourly relationship with saudara Indonesia and to the global community an irreverisible and immesurable loss of biodiversity.
Way, to go Indonesia! selling their million year old virgin's.

Shaking Money From Borneo's Trees
By Washington Post

BETUNG KERIHUN NATIONAL PARK, Indonesia -- A river the color of pale toffee coursed through a valley, carrying several types of rare fish. A young orangutan, a member of a threatened species, dangled merrily by one leg from a tree.
In the heart of Borneo, home to one of the world's last remaining expanses of intact rain forest, Hermas Rintik Maring, an avid conservationist who is native to the area, marveled at the life within the vast canopies of jungle green that for centuries have made this tropical island vital to the health of the region.
At the same time, he said, he fears this pristine forest could fall to the whine of chainsaws and the rumble of bulldozers clearing land for what has been billed as the world's largest palm oil plantation.
The project, brokered by the Indonesian government in Jakarta, could affect as many as 5 million acres of Borneo's forest -- an area slightly... (inserted **slightly bigger than the state of Johor)-- near Indonesia's 1,250-mile-long border with Malaysia. Officials hope China will finance the project on the island, which is divided between Indonesia and Malaysia.
Indonesian officials claim the plantation could bring the area a half a million jobs directly related to the industry and 500,000 more in spin-off jobs in schools, health care and other services. It could produce more than 10 million tons of crude palm oil a year, they said, worth about $4.6 billion...
Earlier this year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ... spoke to President Hu Jintao about helping to develop the border area. "So far, the feedback has been positive," Yudhoyono said...
The Chinese said that though their government is generally keen to invest in Indonesia... agricultural projects such as palm oil plantations require careful study...
The area that environmentalists call the heart of Borneo is home to 14 of the island's 16 major rivers. Six miles downstream from Betung Kerihun is Danau Sentarum, a 325,000-acre necklace of lakes that nurture several species found only on Borneo, including the bekantan monkey and arwana fish. Indigenous peoples live and fish on the lakes. Logging the forests will start a chain reaction of erosion and silt buildup that will destroy the area's water ecosystem, environmentalists say.
At least one plan, drawn up by a consortium of state-owned palm oil plantations and obtained by the Worldwide Fund for Nature, shows plantations being built in three national parks near the border, including Betung Kerihun and Danau Sentarum...
The environmentalists are concerned that under the guise of planting oil palms, companies will raze the forests, removing billions of dollars' worth of timber, and then abandon the land. Too often over the last decade in Indonesia, that scenario has played out. According to the Forestry Ministry, 5.75 million acres of forest in Indonesian Borneo alone have been cleared for palm oil plantations that never materialized. Most of that land is at a lower altitude.
If the government wants to promote oil palm plantations, "Why not use that land?" asked Hermas, the conservationist...
A decade ago, an estimated 100,000 orangutans frolicked in Borneo's forests; today there are only 55,000. Palm oil plantations are the main reason for the decline, according to Friends of the Earth, an international environmental group. The industry could drive the ape to extinction within 12 years, the group warned.......