In February of 1999 I was trekking with a college buddy and a guide in the Gunung Leuser National Park in Sumatra. We were about 3 hours into our 3 day jungle adventure when I heard the unmistakable sound of chainsaws buzzing in the distance. The buzz saws made my ears perk up more than usual on that day because no doubt this was illegal logging or sometimes called timber poaching, in one of the last unmolested areas of Sumatra. The park is on the flanks of the over 3,000 meter peak Gunung Leuser and contains some of the richest biodiversity in the world including Sumatran tigers, rhinos, elephants, orangutans, hornbills, and countless other bird and insect species. That afternoon, as we were setting up camp on the Bohorok River, a burst of rain fell right on time as it usually does in the tropics. Having just finished my degree in physical geography my eyes were fresh out of 4 years of training to observe my environment. What I saw after that brief shower was a Bohorok river that had turned into the color of chocolate milk and nearly left its banks before it ebbed and settled back to its normal state. Was I witnessing floodwaters exacerbated by deforestation or was it just heavier rain upstream that I was ignorant about? Given the news on November 3rd, 2003, almost five years after my visit to the region, I believe that it was due to deforestation upstream.

On October 30th, a stationary low pressure centered over North Sumatra province began its 5-day assault on the normally 1-3 meter deep Bohorok River and turned it into a monster not witnessed in modern times. On November 3rd, the combination of heavy rain falling onto the illegally deforested slopes of the Bohorok watershed caused a wall of water 4 meters high to come barreling down the narrow canyon containing mud, earth and perfectly sawed logs where first it met the Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, then the many guesthouses that line the footpath towards the park headquarters, and finally downstream to Bukit Lawang village and beyond. In its wake it left at least 180 dead and more than 400 buildings destroyed or 90% of the total village. This was an environmental crime of major proportions!

Environmental crimes are not new to society but in this era of globalization appear to be more and more frequent as well as more and more visible. For sure, with the ability of peoples to reach distant lands either by plane or via CNN, these events hit closer to home more today than ever before. There are countless types of environmental crimes ranging from the Soviet Union's desiccation of the Aral Sea in Central Asia to many industries just about everywhere knowingly dumping toxic effluents into waterways. The perpetrators of environmental crimes are as diverse as the offenses committed. The common denominator in such crimes though is the indictment of society. Without humans the environment would exist in a pristine world (with the exception of deep climate change and the occasional comet impact.)

Indonesian officials were quick to blame this catastrophe on illegal logging and were quoted as saying "this disaster was not completely natural." They carried on to say that they know who the loggers are and that they will be brought to justice. But what kind of justice? Corrupt Indonesian justice that led to this problem in the first place or true objective environmental justice?

If there was ever a time for environmental justice, it is now. There is ample evidence to bring an indictment. In fact, there has been such evidence for a long time. There are plenty of witnesses who could have testified. Unfortunately, many of them perished in the raging flood waters.

One of my fondest memories of Bukit Lawang was sitting on the guesthouse porch overhanging the aqua-blue Bohorok River, watching orangutans building their nests 60 meters high in the forest canopy. Most of the orangutans around the town and the rehabilitation center were once stolen as infants from these very forests by "bio pirates" (i.e., poachers) and then sold as pets (just another example of an environmental crime, primate kidnapping!). Once they lost their cute baby faces and became the 100+ kilo people of the forest (orangutan means "forest people" in Indonesian) that they are, their human captors dumped them at the proverbial curbside of society. The fortunate ones were the orangutans who made it back to their jungle home and were witness to the November 3rd unnatural disaster. I wonder what those original people of the forest were thinking from the safety of their perches as these new people of the forest below became the victims of an environmental crime? The orangutans would be a destructive character witness against the defense. What would they like to say to a judge and jury? We will never know, but we can guess.

(AP Photos)

--John Hopewell