Threats to the Rainforest –

Class Debate

This activity requires you to research, plan and participate in a class debate about threats
to the tropical rainforest in Borneo.

You will be assigned one of 8 characters, each of who has a different view about how to
use the rainforest.

You must understand your character’s point-of-view and concerns, and be able to
respond to other characters’ arguments.

This activity will:

 build your research and presenting skills
 improve your knowledge about the impact of human uses of forests
 develop skills in interpreting data, graphs and maps
 build your understanding of the varied perspectives of stakeholders in the issue

The Issue:

Next week the Indonesian government is holding a forum where the different
stakeholders can put forward how they think the tropical rainforest should be used. They
are meeting to argue their point-of-view because of the following issue:

An area of tropical rainforest in Borneo is being considered by the Indonesian government

for development. Currently, a small population of indigenous people live in villages in the
forest. They use the forest sustainably, farm on a small scale, and although some illegal
poaching of animals takes place it is on a subsistence basis. There is also an existing small-
scale logging industry that benefits some of the local people. Now, the government wants to
develop the rainforest area further. It is proposing to allow full-scale logging, palm oil
plantations and mining for minerals. What do you think should happen?

Step 1: Thinking

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Think about the uses humans have for the forest in the order of what you thought was
important. But does everyone agree? What would other people think? Why would they
hold those views?
-Gives people resources e.g wood, ore, animal skins, money, coal, oil ， food （ e.g
mushrooms）
- Cleans the air
- Economical habitats
- Pets?
- moistens air
- FOOD and Water e.g MUSHROOMS!!!!!

Step 2: Reading & Researching

Once you have been assigned 1 of the 8 characters, read through the background
information on Borneo (attached). You may also choose to complete additional research
by exploring the links provided at the bottom of the background information.

Based on your reading and research, and using the attached ‘Arguments’ sheet, write a
list of arguments that your character would make about why the forest should or should
not be developed according to the Indonesian government’s plans. Try to find
appropriate data, statistics or graphs to support your arguments.

Step 3: Preparation

Find other students in your class who have been assigned the same character. Meet with
them and share your information in first session. As a group, you should summarise a list
of arguments that you all agree on and that you will present to the class in the debate.
You may need to do extra research to ensure that your group has the best arguments and
data that supports them.

Step 4: Class Debate

The classroom should be set up in a circle or u-shape and each character group should sit
together. Each group will have 3 minutes to present their arguments to the class. After
each group has presented, there will be 2 minutes for other groups to ask questions
about the arguments or information presented.

The teacher will act as the convenor of

the debate, ensuring that all character
groups have a chance to participate and
express their viewpoint.

As the debate progresses, you will need

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to fill out the attached ‘Viewpoints’ sheet so that you can complete the homework.

Step 5:

Using your ‘Viewpoints’ sheet (last page of this document), write an A4 page typed
proposal that will be submitted to the Indonesian government in response to their plan. It
should attempt to balance the different interests and arguments of all characters in the
debate, though not every perspective may be able to be accommodated.

You could structure your proposal in the following way:

Title: Borneo Rainforest Proposal for Submission to the Indonesian Government

Introduction: Provide a brief summary of the issue and the stakeholders.

Body Paragraph 1: How do you propose that the rainforest in Borneo should be used? This
is where you explain the detail of your proposal.

Body Paragraph 2: What are the social benefits of your proposal? (In other words, what
will be the positive outcomes for the local community and how they live?)

Body Paragraph 3: What are the economic benefits of your proposal? (In other words,
how will the local community, businesses and the government gain financial advantage?)

Body Paragraph 4: What are the environmental benefits of your proposal? (In other
words, how will landforms, soil, water and biodiversity be protected or enhanced?)

Conclusion: Briefly summarise your proposal and its advantages in a few sentences.

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 The Characters

Local Villager Park Ranger Tourist Guide Conservationist

An indigenous man from a A conservation officer A local woman who An Australian forest
local village situated for the Environmental makes an income by conservationist who
within the rainforest. His Department of taking foreign tourists has studied the effect of
tribe have lived here for Indonesia. He is on guided tours into logging on local wildlife
hundreds of years. The concerned about the rainforest where populations and is
village has cleared a small human activity in the they learn about concerned about the
area for farming, but lives rainforest impacting on different aspects of its possible extinction of a
in balance with the plants and animals, in landforms and rare species of monkey,
environment – not taking particular clearing of biodiversity, while and the threat of
too much, and always trees for logging and enjoying the flora and pollution in waterways
letting areas regenerate farming that takes fauna on display. She from the waste of
and animal groups away habitat and food has 3 children and is mining operations.
repopulate. They rely on a sources, and illegal the main source of
small river for their only poaching for profit. income for her family.
clean water supply.

Village Chief Palm Oil Farmer CEO Miner

A village chief who is A farmer who harvests A CEO based in Jakarta A miner who would like
wealthy compared to palm oil for sale to who runs a large to see mining
other locals. He allows overseas corporations logging company. He operations expanded in
illegal loggers to work on for use in food wants to ensure that his the mineral-rich
his land, and has used that production. He has a company continues to rainforest. It would
money to buy medical wife and 6 children, make a profit and is lead to increased
supplies and educational and is eager to clear offering to employ more income so that his
resources for his tribe. more land in the locals, though the wages family may escape
Expanding logging would rainforest to expand his are lower than those poverty, though the

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 bring further economic business and benefit offered to non- work is dangerous and
benefits to the chief. his family. indigenous people. most profits will be
made by the mining
company.

Borneo – Background Information

Use the following maps, graphs, statistics and text to help you understand the issue and
argue your character’s position.

The forests of Borneo and the land that they cover are seen as an important economic
resource by the Indonesian government. The government plans to increase palm oil
plantations from 60,000 square kms to 90,000 square kms. The palm oil would be for
export as it is a vegetable oil used in many food products and also to meet growing
global demand for biofuel. The government believes converting forest into palm oil
plantations would provide jobs in a variety of positions from logging, labour on
plantations, truck drivers and construction of a new port and roads. The proposed site is
approximately 5000 square kms.

Large companies such as Nestle and Unilever are meant to ensure palm oil is grown
sustainably and that forests and peatlands are not converted into new palm oil
plantations, but these protocols have not been followed and there is no government
enforcement or international checking of whether palm oil that is being bought is from a
sustainable source.

Forest and peatland fires (to clear land for palm oil plantations) in Indonesia in
the past few years have led to severe air pollution across Malaysia and Singapore,
causing international tension between these countries. These fires account for 4%
of global CO2 emissions, according to a study by Greenpeace. In August 2014 the
Singapore government passed a law that any company that causes any haze or air
pollution will be fined US$1.6 million even if they don’t have an office in
Singapore.

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Photo: The Tanjong Pagar
container port shrouded in
smog in Singapore. Air pollution
hit unhealthy levels due to smog
from fires in Indonesia, causing
people to have breathing
difficulties and some to die.

Biofuels have grown in

demand and
production (see chart
on left), fuelled by high
oil prices and the initial
perception that they
reduced CO2 emissions.
Biofuels, including
biodiesel from palm oil
and ethanol from
sugarcane, accounted
for about 1% of the
total road transport in
2005, and may reach
25% by 2050. For many
countries, such as
Indonesia and Malaysia,
biofuels are seen as an
opportunity to improve rural
livelihoods and boost the
economy through exports. The
United States is the largest
producer and consumer of
biofuels, followed by Brazil
(see chart on next page). Brazil
has now cleared 2.7 million of
forest land area for this
production.

Illegal logging is a significant

problem. The Ramin tree is a
highly valued tropical wood
which is found in the proposed
site to be logged and replaced
with palm oil plantations. The
government would like to
control the logging of Ramin
from the area and take the
money away from the illegal
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 loggers.

The forests of Borneo are home to a large number of animal, bird and insect species.
Cutting the forest down will endanger a variety of species.

Capabilities of Wildlife Rangers

As in many other parts of the world, forest and wildlife law enforcement staff
in Indonesia receives less in the way of salaries, training and equipment than
the armed forces and regular police units. Consequently, these rangers have
very variable levels of training and background. Even well trained staff
receives little training in patrolling or combat skills, which is required to take
on the massive well-organized intrusions into the park. There is also a general
lack of vehicles, aeroplanes or helicopters, boats and arms. Neither does their
ordinary training include the military long-range patrol skills or combat
training required to take on the massive well-organized intrusions into the
parks. Their counterparts working for logging companies, however, include
security guards, sometimes with a foreign military background, automatic
weapons and tactical training. When making encroachments into parks, they
are often present in large numbers, bringing heavy machinery deep into the
protected area. Ordinary rangers face high and sometimes lethal risks in
confronting these organized invasions.

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‘Large-scale opposition among Borneo villagers to deforestation’
(by Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com September 10, 2013)

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of villagers surveyed across

rainforests in Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo are
against large-scale deforestation due to the adverse
impacts on livelihoods and the environment, finds a
comprehensive new study across 185 communities. The
research, conducted over a one-year period by an
international team of scientists found that people who live
near forests place the greatest value on the benefits they
afford, including medicinal plants, animals for food, clean
water, and shelter. Small-holder clearing for subsistence
agriculture was generally viewed favorably, while large-
scale deforestation for industrial timber plantations and
oil palm estates was usually seen as having negative
impacts. Only a small proportion — less than 20 percent
— were supportive of large-scale forest conversion,
usually for palm oil development. The study found "high
awareness" of the impacts of deforestation, including
"high levels of concern over higher temperatures, air
pollution and loss of clean water sources."

COMPANIES USE UNDERHAND METHODS

Currently, logging companies not only extensively

use bribes, they are also better armed and equipped
than most park rangers, frequently employing
security guards including foreign nationals and
former police and military officers. Where efforts
have been made to prosecute illegal loggers, the
cases have often failed to make headway in the
judicial system. Indeed, only around 10% of cases
ever reach the courts.

Illegal logging and oil palm plantations in protected

areas are the result of poor law enforcement and
lack of resources to allow effective monitoring and
inspection by rangers.

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“3.43 million tourist arrivals last year into Malaysian Borneo”
http://www.theborneopost.com/2017/03/04/3-43-million-tourist-arrivals-last-year/

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Tourism has recorded its best year ever in 2016 with 3.43 mil-
lion tourist arrivals with an estimated RM7.25 billion in tourism receipts. Sabah Tourism
Board chairman, Datuk Joniston Bangkuai at the Sabah Travel and Lifestyle Fair 2017
held at Suria Sabah near here yesterday, said that this happened despite the challenges.
“This has surpassed our best record in 2013 with 3.38 million tourist arrivals. On inter-
national tourist arrivals alone, we witnessed an increase of 15.4 percent compared to
the 2015 statistics,” he said. He added that China remained the main contributor with
33.2 percent market share with an
overall growth of 51.8 percent in
2016 compared to the year before.
“This is a result of years of partner-
ship with the private sector, working
with the correct partners, aggress-
ively putting Sabah as top of the
mind destination as well as embra-
cing digital marketing.” He also said
that the private sectors provided a
platform to present Sabah’s local
products to international guests.

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Indonesia's Palm Oil Industry
The economic significance of palm oil for Indonesia cannot be underestimated. In 2006, the country
became the world's leading producer of palm oil, and in 2012, produced 28 million tons of palm oil.
Other Useful Websites

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/faq-palm-oil-forests-and-climate-change
Environmental impacts
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/palm-oil Environmental impacts

http://www.schusterinstituteinvestigations.org/#!indonesias-palm-oil-industry/c1lfi
The economic value to Indonesia

https://news.mongabay.com/2013/07/80-of-rainforests-in-malaysian-borneo-logged/ Logging
in Borneo

http://www.mongabay.com/borneo.html Borneo’s Geography

http://www.grida.no/files/publications/orangutan-full.pdf A very detailed report on

the status of the Orang-utan from the United Nations

http://www.sustainablepalmoil.org/palm-oil-by-region/south-asia/ Statistics on Palm

Oil in Indonesia

http://www.sustainablepalmoil.org/transport-biofuels/ Impacts of biofuel from palm

oil

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/october/oil-palm-plantation.html Detailed
report on Palm Oil demand and carbon emissions

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6059 The reasons for palm oil plantations and some

consequences

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 Arguments
My allocated character is: LOCAL VILLAGER

Their concerns are (think about their viewpoint and how they will be advantaged or
disadvantaged by the issue):

My Arguments Any data, statistics, graphs or maps that

support my arguments (include the
source)
-we want to save the rainforest as it is our local
area and our home.
-BUT we also enjoy jobs and earning money and
the forest has plenty of resources to sell and
make MoNeY
-however this also counts as destroying our own
homes and that the trees lost fgor PALM OIL may
not EVER be replanted
-Suddenly leave our home suddenly without
warning due to it being destroyed
-柴北以

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 Viewpoints
As the debate progresses, write a dot point list of the major arguments made by each
character group. You will use this to complete the homework task.

Characters Main Arguments

The Villager

Park Ranger

Tourist Guide

Conservationist

Village Chief

Palm Oil Farmer

Logging Executive

Miner

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Note-Taking Page

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