Deforestation

Most Americans know what a big problem deforestation is worldwide, but rarely see its effects firsthand. We had such a chance when Luc hiked up into our cloud forest on the nearby mountain which straddles the international border with our Peace Corps neighbor from Malawi and a student. It was a cloudy wet day, so we decided to stay off the big rocks and instead hiked through the towering trees looking for monkeys. While enjoying the jungle environment we stumbled across a small logging camp and a gaping hole in the vegetative canopy where locals had chopped down several hardwood giants whose timber law scattered in the unnatural clearing. Although upset by the destruction, we also felt for the friendly lumberlacks who were clearly driven by poverty as evidenced by their pathetic living conditions - a dank camp of makeshift tents fashioned from old plastic tarps and tree branches. We stood among the large stumps of trees which must have been hundreds of
years old without saying much feeling the emotional impact of the deforestation. Our student was particularly affected, remembering when he had taken previous Volunteers through that once wooed part of the forest several years before and wondering where the monkeys would live when the last of the big trees vanished.