Mayer Rumbeyan can no longer see the beautiful forest in Maguiruk, Silabu Village, North Pagai District, Mentawai Islands, as he once could.
Now, the woods in the forest of his hometown are being cut by heavy equipment. Meranti and kruing trees are cut into 10-meter logs and piled on newly cleared forest land to be taken to a logging site on the beach in Polimo. The wood is then loaded onto pontoon boat waiting in the middle of the sea and is taken out of the Mentawai Islands. The timber in the forest was cut down by the Mentawai Essential Oil Cooperative to clear land for an essential oil crop after it obtained an Approval for the Use of Non-Forestry Timber (PKKNK) on August 26, 2021 from the head of the West Sumatra Forestry Service in the APL area of Silabu Village, North Pagai, Mentawai Islands Regency. The approved clearing covers an area of 1,500 hectares.
This video is supported by the Rainforest Journalism Fund in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center.