A deluge of timber: From vanishing forests to deadly disasters
"Mysterious sea of logs hit ‘powerless communities’ the hardest."

"From vanishing forests to deadly disasters Houses were swept away and large logs came with the flood, crashing into homes and carrying them off. We don’t exactly know where the logs came from … there is a palm oil plantation upstream, it’s several thousand hectares.”

"And those who suffer most are not the perpetrators or the investors. It’s the powerless communities,” Muhadi Bukhari said. Another Indonesian environmental NGO, Wahli, described the disaster not just as “nature’s fury” but one that was “amplified by decades of deforestation”. >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-05/sumatra-floods-disaster-reforestation-climate/106443342
#deforestation #LoggingImpacts #floods #plantations

📖 The book 'Plantation Knowledge' includes a chapter by Marta Macedo that 'explores the deep entanglements established between São Tomé and the Congo through projects of cocoa plantations over the course of two decades, from the early 1890s to the early 1910s.'

🔓 The book is available via #OpenAccess: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/17059

#Histodons #Colonialism #Belgium #Portugal #Congo #SãoToméEPríncipe #Plantations #Cocoa #AgriculturalHistory

#Burundi #tea #plantations hamper #chimpanzee #protection

https://globalvoices.org/2026/02/14/burundi-tea-plantations-hamper-chimpanzee-protection/

The NT: In them old cotton fields back home

"Incoming Northern Territory Administrator David Connolly has apologised over his trove of divisive past social media posts, a day before he is formally sworn-in."

"Mr Connolly's past commentary has been labelled variously as sexist, racist, transphobic, homophobic and bigoted by various groups including the Northern Land Council (NLC), the Country Women's Association NT and the Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the NT (APONT)." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-25/david-connolly-apologises-over-social-media-controversy/106389356

King Charles’s official representative in the Northern Territory >>
https://mastodon.au/@Bellingen/116135022082276542

#NT #Australia #cotton #monoculture #plantations #sexism #racism #homophobia #transphobia #sorry #DevelopingNation

Image: The 'wide open spaces' of the NT populated with cotton. As far as the eye can see a "third-world crop" or a critical commodity for developing nations.

A yearning for the idyllic forest scene and cellulose factories

When they want to ‘get away from it all’ and ‘go for a drive’ through nature, the idyllic forest scene, they are in denial that the romantic craving for the bush turns out to be industrial plantations.

“Nature ... is a planned product of the forestry industry, a purely wisely placed storehouse for cellulose production, which is readily apparent.”
- The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil, 1930

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Without_Qualities
#forests #forestryCorporation #forestry #CelluloseFactories #LoggingIndustry #landscapes #TheBush #plantations #monoculture #RawMaterials #extractivism #biodiversity #nature #book #literature

Hype for the Future 98K: The Santee and Hopsewee Plantations — South Carolina

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/02/06/hype-for-the-future-98k-the-santee-and-hopsewee-plantations-south-carolina/

The idea of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) and ongoing clearfell logging of native forests

"Government GKNP proposal falls short according to Ashley Love...He says a recent environmental report, prepared on behalf of and with input from local environmentalists, indicates the current Government proposal is “grossly inadequate...It fails to adequately protect the largest coastal koala population in NSW, which occupies Bongil Bongil National Park, Pine Creek, Orara East and Tuckers Nob State Forests."

“The majority of plantation production is for pulpwood into a market that is now heavily oversupplied in South-east Asia or for burning as “biofuel” for electricity production.”
>>
https://coffscoast.newsofthearea.com.au/government-gknp-proposal-falls-short-according-to-ashley-love
#Biodiversity #wildlife #NSWLogging #governance #failure #thegreatkoalaNationalPark #ClearFelling #plantations #BellingenShire #TuckersNob #NSWForestry #extractivism

Let's cover the Mid North Coast of NSW in plastic..

Image:
"Surrounding the town of El Ejido, Almeria Province, southern Spain is a sea of greenhouses, stretching for tens of kilometers. Millions of tons of vegetables are exported to other European countries and other parts of the world. The image covers an area of 19 x 30.5 km, was acquired July 20, 2008, and is located at 36.75 degrees north latitude, 2.75 degrees west longitude."
https://science.nasa.gov/photojournal/almeria-spain/

NSW - Traumatic landscapes of plastic, pollution and exploitation
https://mastodon.au/@Bellingen/115991606657243814
#NSW #industrialisation #SeaOfPlastic #plastic #MidNorthCoast #blueberries #agribusiness #plantations #externalities #EcologicalViolence