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A Forest Betrayed
Ladia Galaska, a stretch of 500-km highway that connects the Indian Ocean, Gayo, Alas and the Malacca Straits, has always been a controversy.
Environmentalists believe the construction of the road will seriously damage the Leuser forest—an ecosystem zone in the border areas of Aceh and North Sumatra—which will be passed by it. If the project continues, most of the 2.6 million hectares of virgin forests will be destroyed. It is home to some 4,500 tropical plant species and hundreds of mammals, reptiles and insects. Moreover, massive floods and landslides will also threaten the area.
The Aceh Provincial Government, supported by the Department of Resettlement and Infrastructures, insisted on carrying the project through, claiming that the cross-island highway would break the isolation of the hinterland.
Early in last November, TEMPO traveled some of Ladia Galaska's path and witnessed the environmental damage already done on the area. The forest had lost most of their trees, while the existing trees lost their leaves. The lung of the world is betrayed and it no longer has the power to protect our children as it has to us and past generations.
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The Vanishing Pines in Leuser
Elephants, Sumatran tigers, rhinoceroses, honey bears, orangutans, and the giant flower Rafflesia arnoldi will be a thing of the past if Ladia Galaska is carried through.
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