TROPICAL RAINFORESTS: Imperiled Riches—Threatened Rainforests
Illegal Logging in Thailand: Described by a Christian Science Monitor Reporter
"Nobody knows exactly how many square miles of the rain forest in southern Thailand have been ravaged by the logging industry.From the perspective of a small group of people struggling their way across the wasted hills, it seems as if the whole world has been blasted to dust and ash and twisted stumps.
From horizon to horizon the land was gray and white, the soft round contours of the hills broken by jagged lines: the refuse of limbs, unsalable trees, and torn-up soil left by the loggers.
Within minutes, we were soaked with sweat and laboring for breath, even the pu chuay, who is well experienced at traveling in this type of terrain.
There was no cover from the tropical sun; there was no sign of life. No birds sang, no small things scurried underneath the brush, and the only insects we saw were swarms of very hungry mosquitoes. There was no path to follow, the streams were choked with ash and deadfall, and the dirt was dry and loose underfoot. The place stank of rot and stagnant water" (Rosse 1993).
Continued: Economic Restructuring