Located right next door to Malaysia is Borneo with it’s vastly forested land. The forested lands of Borneo is now slowly shrinking. The biggest threat that the forests of Borneo face today is coal mining. BHP Billiton, world’s largest coal mining company is planning on developing forest mines in the so called hear of Borneo.
The coal mining industry sort of undermine the steps taken to protect these forested lands. The best part is that BHP Billiton has already assured BBC’s Saving planet earth that, the mining company will do whatever it needs to protect apes like orangutans. However, instead of protecting them, it seems like the coal mining company is going to raze some of the rainforest, which is the dwelling grounds of orangutans.
All this is happening just because of greedy industrialists and investors trying to utilize all of Borneo’s coal resources which are located deep in the rainforests. Even though coal mining is strictly prohibited in this region as per the ‘Forestry law No. 41 of the statute book of the Republic of Indonesia, an investment of $40 million has already been made.
Since these folks have already made the investment, they are not going to see it go to waste. As a result, the company has taken certain measures to ensure that the coal gets mined. As a part of this measure, they have approached the president of Indonesia Megawati Sukarnoputri in order to persuade her.
The word is out that if the mining is not allowed, the company will try to wreak havoc in the democracy by investing another few million dollars. At least that way, the job will get done once the president’s regime falls apart.
Due to this, environmentalists all around the world are furious. They are staging protests against Anglo Australian group and against coal mining in Borneo forest. I would love to see those coal mines the forests get messed up by the giant apes and workers of BHP Billiton running for their life.
Image Credits: Nytimes, Tripadvisor
