use of english listening test 1999

part 1

announcer: in this part, you will hear an interview with two environmental activists. you will have 5
minutes to familiarize yourself with the note-headings for part i before the interview
begins. at the end of part i, you will have 5 minutes to tidy up your answers.

announcer: the radio programme is about to begin. you will only hear the recording once.

knight: good afternoon, listeners. this is your old friend sally knight back with you agjn. welcome
to this week's edition of planet watch 2000. this is the third in a series of six programmes
where we examine man's relationship with nature. that relationship is becoming one of
increasing concerns as we reach the end of the twentieth century. today we have with us
two very special guests who have kindly agreed to tell us about the environmental work
they are doing around the world. they belong to an organization called...

chase: the green earth movement. that's gem for short.

knight: thank you. and their names are jerry chase and amanda kwan. now, you two only met
each other recently, is that right?

kwan: it is, yes. jerry is based in europe, whereas i belong to the local branch of the
organization. he is a field agent for gem. why don't you explain what that involves, jerry?

chase: well, my job has changed quite a lot over the years but what i do now is make video
films. amanda is my contact here in hong kong.

kwan: yes, i’m the public relations offlcer for gem. as pr officer my responsibility is to arrange
presentations and things like that. next week there's a presentation about jerry’s video - a
documentary about logging in sarawak.

knight: okay. now we're going to talk a little about the topic of jerry's video in the first half of
this programme, and, while we're doing that, if any of you listeners at home have a
question you would like to ask my guests today, please call our switchboard on
25899103.
i'll say that again, that’s 25899103. we’ll be taking your calls in about 15 minutes.

jerry, tell us about your video. where exactly did you make it?

chase: in the jungles of sarawak. sarawak is a malaysian state on the island of borneo. it takes up
most of the north west coast, but the places i travelled to and where i saw the worst efiects
of logging were upriver, close to the border with brunei.

knight: and what sort of things does the video show?

chase: well, to start with i wanted to film the tree felling operations in the jungle, that is, show
how they cut the trees down in the first place. i'll talk about the way they do this in a
moment. at the same time i tried to film the dangerous working conditions. these are
particularly bad at the sites where the trees are being cut down — there are hardly any
safety regulations to protect the workers there. another aim of the video was to show how
logging affects local communities. by local communities i mean the native tribes who still
live in the jungle. at the end of the video are some interviews with agents from logging
companies in the regions — these were representatives for buyers with interests in japan.
i'll talk a bit more about japan later.

kwan: the first part of the video reveals something very interesting and that is that there is a huge
amount of wastage in the trees that are being cut down.

knight: why is that happening? is it really as bad as they say?

chase: that depends on who you mean by 'they' government officials will tell you that they only
cut down a limited number of trees. but, while that may have been their original intention,
it certainly isn't what's happening in reality. in many cases, there is a great wastage of
trees for a number of reasons. the most important of these is the fact that the logging
workers are not trained. lack of training obviously leads to quite a few problems, the main
one being that the workers ignore the regulations. another problem is that taey chop down
the wrong trees. this is because they are told to go into the forest to look for suitable trees
but they are not told how to identity them. finally, when they start chopping, they don’t
think about which way the tree will fall, so they damage other trees as a result.

those are the primary problems, but the situation is made worse when the logs are
removed from the forest. this is where the skidder comes in. a skidder is a huge four-
wheel tractor with a long chain with a hook on the end which can be attached to the log.
the driver of this vehicle usually has no idea where the log he's looking for is located. he
just drives around until he finds it, destroying plants and bushes on the way. the skidder
will cause even more damage when it pulls the log out of the forest.

knight: what a terrible situation.

chase: indeed, and what it means effectively is that, for every one tree deliberately cut down, ten
other trees may be lost. the government calls it selective logging, but i’m afraid that, in
my view, it is in fact extremely destructive.

knight: tell us more about the conditions at the sites. you suggested that being a logging worker is
a risky business.

chase: that’s something of an understatement. in one place i went to called merapit, the workers
were using equipment which was badly-maintained- chainsaws with broken handles,
ropes that could easily snap - that kind of thing. many of the workers had no protective
clothing on, they were just wearing jeans and t-shirts. to make it worse the ground is
usually very muddy so they end up slipping all over the place. sometimes i felt like i was
back in the days of slavery.
kwan: these workers, as jerry has mentioned, are mostly local tribesmen. their conditions of
employment are terrible. they only get money for what they produce — that is, they are
paid piece-rates by the logging company. as a result they work very long hours — usually
from the moment the sun comes up to when it goes down and sometimes even into the
night. the long hours obviously lead to exhaustion. when people get exhausted, they then
get careless. carelessness in this kind of work can have serious consequences. workers are
often injured and sometimes even killed. do you know there were almost a hundred
deaths due to logging accidents in sarawak last year?

knight: a hundred! that's astonishing.

kwan: as if that weren't bad enough, none of these workers had medical cover or insurance
provided by their employers.

chase: it's always the tribespeople who end up as the losers where logging is concerned, and i
don't just mean the workers. i’m thinking also about the villages located near the logging
sites. in the more remote villages the tribespeople survive by hunting, farming and
fishing. let’s take hunting to start with. many of the animals the tribes once hunted have
been frightened away by noise. the kind of noise that frightens them away is, you know,
the wail of chainsaws and the engines of the skidders and the logging trucks. in addition,
when they have free time, the workers shoot the animals, but they hunt them for
entertainment only, not for food. how about farming then? in many places this is still
possible, but often, because of the logging operations, the tribes cannot practise crop
rotation - crop rotation refers to when farmers move their crops each year so that the soil
doesn't get exhausted. the other problem is flooding — when there are no trees to absorb
heavy rainfall, farms get washed away.

knight: how is the fishing affected?

chase: well, the rivers get blocked up with mud. fish can't survive in muddy water. then there’s
the added problem of waste from the logging camps. the waste, which may be sewage, or
diesel oil or even chemicals used to treat the logs, pollutes the rivers, killing the fish.

kwan: one of the two greatest health problems facing the tribes now is therefore malnutrition.
basically, they don't have enough to eat because of the things jerry has just mentioned. the
other main problem is disease, which is on the increase. logged areas are ideal breeding
grounds for mosquitoes, so there's a lot of malaria.

knight: and presumably these things are threatening their very way of life.

kwan: that's right. logging has great implications for their society. many people are i moving
towards the larger towns and cities where work is scarce. it is now more common for the
men to get drunk, particularly if they cannot find a job. as for the women, many of them
become prostitutes in order to make money. and one of the saddest sights in cities like
miri and sibu is the children begging in the streets. these once proud tribes have been
reduced to tramps and street sleepers.

knight: that's very sad. but, for now, let's go back to what happens to the logs.

chase: well, the logs are transported by boat to special storage camps along either side of the
river. in these camps, the logs are piled up on top of each other. there are tens of
thousands of them and some of these piles are more than 20 feet high.
knight: and i suppose they're waiting to be exported?

chase: as a matter of fact, most of them are of no use to anyone. they are often rejected by the
buyers as unsuitable for exporting.

knight: why do the buyers think they're unsuitable?

chase: well, it could be that they're the wrong species of tree, that is, the wrong type of wood,
and sometimes buyers don't like them because the wood is not perfect - there may be
marks on it or other kinds of defects. the other thing is some of the logs have been at the
camps for years, so they've simply rotted.

knight: and it was at these storage camps that you met the buyers.

chase: yes, i recorded a conversation with one of them without him realizing it. i pretended to be
a heavy machinery expert, you know, interested in selling skidders or logging trucks,
because they are very suspicious of environmentalists like myself and he wouldn't have
spoken to me otherwise. what i wanted to find out was, who allows the companies to
operate on tribal land. logging frequently takes place on property which has belonged to
the local villagers for hundreds of years.

kwan: the way in which they lose their land involves a number of people. it starts when the
government suddenly claims one day that it owns the land. this shows how much power
officials have. then the most senior man in the state, the chief minister, sells the rights to
the land to anyone with enough money — he may sell it to his relatives, his friends, other
politicians, who knows? let's call these the middle-men. these middle-men then invite
logging companies to start work on the land, and in come the trucks and the skidders.
millions of dollars pass hands during this process, but the tribespeople whose land it is
receive hardly a cent, unless, of course, they decide to help cut down the trees themselves.

chase: the buyer i spoke to confirmed all of this, but it didn't seem to worry him. all he was
interested in was making a big profit for his company.

knight: and on that sober note, perhaps we’ll take a short break. when we come back, we'll be
taking some of your calls about this very interesting, if depressing, topic. and don’t forget,
that number is 25899103. back in a moment.

announcer: that’s the end of part i. you’ll now have 5 minutes to tidy up what you've written.
part ii
announcer: in this part you'll hear a phone-in question-and-answer session. you'll now have 3 minutes
to familiarize yourself with the headings for part ii. at the end of part ii, you’ll have 10
minutes to tidy up your answers.

knight: welcome back to the show, listeners. let's go straight into the calls, which jerry and
amanda will take it in turns to answer. right, now we have james parker calling from
mong kok. james, what's your question?

parker: thanks. it sounds like the tribespeople are being treated very badly. do they ever protest
about what's happening?

chase: protest? yes, some of them do. for example, there have been instances where tribespeople
go to the law courts to fight. after all, the land is supposed to belong to them. but, as you
might expect, there are problems with doing this. one is that they usually have to travel a
long way to get to a law court. they live in the jungle and courts exist only in the big
cities. another problem is that they may have to wait many months before their case is
heard. i know of one case where they had to wait for up to a year. a third problem is that
of corrupt court officials — villagers end up having to pay large bribes to get help.

parker: it sounds as if it's hardly worth the effort.

kwan: you're right. that’s why tribespeople sometimes protest in more direct ways. we know of
one case in a place called simbang where the tribespeople destroyed bridges built by the
logging company. the police acted quickly and arrested some tribesmen from a nearby
village, although they didn't have any real proof it was them. even so, they kept the men
in jail for nearly three months without charging them.

knight: okay. thanks for that question, james. now, we have another caller on the line whose name
is...

tung: er, simon tung, my name is simon tung, er, i live in sha tin. erm, i've been watching, er, tv
and there seems to be a lot more forest fires, er, for example, in indonesia. erm, i wonder
if you could tell me what, er, causes those forest fires and are there. . .is there any
relationship of these forest fires to logging?

chase: well, it depends which side you're on. the government would say that it's all the fault of
the tribespeople. they say that the tribespeople burn down the trees so that they can plant
crops and that leads to fires which get out of control.

gem completely disagrees with this. i mean, it’s ridiculous. tribes have been using these
techniques for hundreds of years. i mean, they know what they're doing, they know how
to control the fires. the government is only saying that because they want to, sort of, back
up the logging workers and we know that the logging workers are untrained — they don't
know how to set fires safely. well the government accuse us — they accuse gem of being
all woolly about the tribespeople. they say that we're romantics: they say that we're
ignorant, but that’s just not true. gem says that it's all the fault of the logging companies.
the way they clear the land - it’s... it’s not right, it's unsupervised, it’s ignorant. the
workers are burning down bushes so that they can get to the trees more easily. so,
basically, what we're saying is that it's the logging company's fault.
knight: a definite difference of opinion there. thanks for that question... and we have another now
from a lamma island resident called christina ng. go ahead christina.

ng: thanks, sally. your guests have talked about the tremendous wastage of trees in sarawak,
but obviously some of the wood is exported. my question is, what furniture do they use
the wood for?

kwan: well, as japan is the largest exporter of logs from sarawak, we did a study of how the
wood is used there. the facts are very surprising. like you, most people have the idea that
tropical hardwood is used to make very high-quality furniture, like cabinets, tables and
chairs, that kind of thing. but, actually, hardwood is hardly ever put to these uses in
modern-day japan. more than three-quarters of the logs which are shipped to japan
actually end up as plywood. sure, a small percentage of hardwood is still used on
occasion for interior decoration in such things as luxury boats and there are still one or
two houses made with fine wooden beams shipped all the way from the rainforest. but
you don't see many of those in japan these days. most of the buildings are prefabricated
and that's where plywood comes in.

chase: yes, these are the thin wooden sheets which are used in the construction industry to make
the walls of buildings. plywood is used all over the world, but in other countries it is
usually made from low-cost softwood which is specially grown. only in japan do they use
wood from the rainforest to make these sheets. the advantage is that concrete walls in
japan have a much smoother surface than anywhere else.

knight: (sound amazed) how strange! so, trees which are hundreds of years old are being cut
down, and tribespeople go hungry, all so that the residents of tokyo can have smooth
walls in their houses. unbelievable! anyway, we have our next caller, andrew wong from
sai wan ho. good afternoon, andrew.

wong: good afternoon. em, i was listening to your programme and i was following your
discussion and i have a question. i was wondering why cheaper wood isn't used for
construction. you know the reason of having smooth walls doesn't sound very convincing
to me.

kwan: well, let me give you a few reasons. er, it actually costs less to cut down a tree, ship it to
japan and make it into plywood than using softwood from japan... okay? erm, for
example, workers in japan have much higher salaries than those in sarawak. in fact the
local people in sarawak are paid very very little.., and then, land in sarawak is free,
providing some profits go to officials, but they have to pay for land rights in japan.

wong: and i'll be interested to know exactly how much hardwood is imported by japan?

kwan: oh, a lot. erm, about, erm. 50% of sarawak's logs are sent to japan every year and, er,
most of the rest are sent to korea, erm, and maybe just under a quarter goes to taiwan and
then a little less goes to hong kong. parts of sarawak... actually ... it's almost a japanese
plantation, you know?

wong: thank you.

knight: thank you for those questions, andrew. now, jerry, tell me, are people in japan aware of
what's happening?
chase: well, there is one group that we know of who have protested against the logging
companies. this is the japan tropical forest action network, or jatan for short. the tropical
forest action network is a well-organized, hardworking group, but it faces a number of
problems. one is a lack of public support. most people do not think of the world
environment as a very important issue in japan. the other main difficulty is that jatan can't
change the practices of the logging companies. japanese companies are very big and very
powerful and they don't have much time for environmentalists.

knight: have jatan had any kind of success at all?

chase: well, they have managed to get the companies to give some money to an environmental
research fund, but they only give approximately $800 us a year per company — whicn is
about the price of a large business lunch in japan.

knight: okay, time for one more caller, a gentleman from kowloon tong. your question, please.

partridge: yes, i'm alan partridge. i'd like to go back to the issue of the tribespeople. let's face it,
most of them are poor, uneducated and, well, just not civilized, so my question is, can
they improve their standard of living without logging? whether you like it or not, logging
will bring some benefits to the people of sarawak.

kwan: i agree that everyone must have the right to improve their standard of living and that
logging could be a way of helping the tribespeople do that. but the point jerry's video
makes is that each benefit has disadvantages. okay, there are new road networks in
sarawak built by the logging companies, so you think to yourself the local people can get
around more easily - not true — only logging trucks are allowed to use the road so
effectively there's no public transport.

sure, some families can now afford to send their children to towns for their education.
there is no doubt that this is a great opportunity, but the disadvantage is, afterwards, the
young people don't want to return to their village. they suddenly see the way of life there
as very hard and very backward.

knight: what implications does this have for the villages?

kwan: well, the result is that some remote villages have only children and the very old living
there.

ten years ago i would have said that sensitive logging, that is, logging which is properly
planned, could have helped improve the standard of living in sarawak. now i think it’s
probably too late.

partridge: ah. i can't say i agree with you there. erm, i mean, surely, if... ... if... ... if you chop down
trees and bushes and things like that. i mean, eventually they'll just simply grow again.
chase: oh look we're talking about trees here, not rice. you can plant a crop of rice and harvest it
and plant it again the next year, but you can't do that with trees. trees take a long time to
grow. they're essentially a non-reu... non-renewable source, and if we look at it
worldwide, the whole thing is a catastrophe. in india, 95% of their rainforest has been
wiped out. in thailand, not much better, 85%. i can go on, indonesia, 65%. brazil and
sarawak 55%. if that goes on in sarawak, then, in fifteen years time, i mean, there’s...
there’s just not going to be any trees left, and the horrible irony is that by the year 2013,
sarawak’s going to be a net importer of hard wood.

knight: well, i have to say that's one of the most depressing things i've heard lately. i had no idea
the situation was so bad. thank you, jerry chase and amanda kwan —

chase: thank you.

kwan: our pleasure.

knight: - for sharing this shocking information with us and to those who called in with questions.
and just to let you know that you can see a presentation of jerry's video at the gem
headquarters in united centre, admiralty on the 1st of may, where they'll also be talking
about what you can do to help save what's left of the rainforest. meanwhile, from me,
sally knight, your host for planet watch 2000, it’s goodbye for now. coming up next we
have the news followed by...

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