ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALISM IN TIMOR - LESTE ROADWORKS

Dismay has been expressed over the felling of trees,some more than 400 years old ,in the Timor-Leste enclave of Oecusse. Judy Charnaud,OzGREEN program manager,points out there has been large scale destruction of trees with a girth of more than six metres and a height of 80 metres and above as part of roadworks carried out in the Oecusse town in the past few months . She asked if Timor-Leste has an environmental policy . If so, it must surely have been completely contravened in this instance .

As she watched the last tree topple, she heard people say how sad it was to see the loss of such beautiful trees. All this destruction to build roads took place in a tiny enclave,population 50,000, never likely to see serious traffic problems .

The consequence of this environmental vandalism would be widespread – lack of shade, iron roofed houses now exposed to full sunlight, severe erosion and subsequent filling of the drains which have replaced the trees, increased carbon footprint, loss of biodiversity, loss of ambience, loss of scenic value.

The road repair work could surely have been done in a more eco-friendly way, she said . Did every large tree have to be removed, could the road be widened in such a way that only one side had to be cleared, could the road have been moved?