Forests - Environmental Transformations - page 81

5

CHAPTER FIVE

Forests

Jungle capitalism and the
corporate environment

While no one is claiming that Chut Wutty was
deliberately targeted by the military or associated
state authorities, his tragic death serves as a
poignant illustration of the often-violent political
and economic struggles that are waged over and
within our planet's forests. On one side of this
complex struggle are people such as Chut Wutty
who are concerned that the large-scale commercial
exploitation of forests could significantly under-
mine their ability to serve as precious community
resources and offer important ecosystem services
to the planet as a whole. On the other side are those
who recognize the important commercial role
of forests in providing the raw materials needed
for the production of a range of everyday items
including paper, nappies, furniture, rubber and
even pharmaceuticals (see Dauvergne and Lister,
2011). In many ways forests are key places within
which to explore the issues that confront us in the
Anthropocene. Ten thousand years ago much of
the Earth was covered in dense natural forests
(Dauvergne and Lister, 2011). In many respects the
gradual clearance of these primordial forests is the
most obvious visible sign of the rise of the human
geological era (Ruddiman, 2005). This chapter
charts the evolving relationships between humans
and forests and considers the historical and con-
temporary forces that have shaped these relations.
Particular attention is given, in this context, to the
increasingly significant role of multinational tim-
ber and paper corporations and global commodity

'What happened mother, why did we run?'
'Man was in the forest'

Bambi

5.1 INTRODUCTION: THE
STORY OF CHUT WUTTY
On 25 April 2012 Chut Wutty was leading
journalists around a section of what he believed to
be illegally logged land in the Ratanakiri region of
Cambodia. Chut Wutty had been campaigning
against the destruction of indigenous forestland at
the hands of illegal loggers and state-sanctioned
forest clearances ( Independent , 2012). Wutty's
concern for Cambodia's unspoiled woodlands led
him to form the Natural Resource Protection
Group. This group is based in the Cambodian
capital city Phnom-Penh and lobbies government
to provide better protection for its forest resources.
In addition to his lobbying work, Wutty and the
Natural Resource Protection Group also sought to
expose government corruption and the alleged sell-
off of Cambodia's national parks. On 25 April it
was reported that Wutty and his party were taking
photographs of illegal logging activities (BBC,
2012b). The military police officers who were
present asked them to stop taking photographs and
attempted to commandeer their camera's memory
card. It was at this point that Wutty became
involved in an altercation with a military police
officer and was shot and killed ( Independent , 2012).