Town Local

 

My name is Harry Smith and I'm a town local of Nakka Nakka. The town I live in is relatively small. Apart from a few odd jobs, the closest place to work is three hours away. This is a long way to travel, six hours a day, and I often find it;s not only affecting me, but my family as well. When I heard they were considering logging the rainforest, I was jumping for joy - finally, a job that would leave me with some family time. I didn't care what the job was - deforestation a vast majority of jobs so I'm open to whatever I get handed. I told all my mates, they're all in the same boat as me, travel for hours just to put some food on the plate. We went down town to enquire about getting a job, before all the city workers roll in and there will be no space left for us. Next thing we know, the place is swarming with protestors and hippies, telling them to leave the forest be. Couldn't believe my eyes! So I came home, got on the computer and researched all the good outcomes of deforestation. Just wait till I get down there to the protest and show them that this is a good thing for this town.

 

Deforestation is always associated with the negatives, rather than the positives. In Indonesia alone, deforestation and its associated opportunities created 288,000 jobs (Butler, 2011). Deforestation brings a wide variety of jobs to a town/city. These involve:

  • Clearing the forest
  • Transporting the wood
  • Reusing the wood to create another product, i.e. paper, furniture
  • Building the University
  • As this is a long-term project, more houses and services could be built within the town to accomodate the influx of workers
  • Jobs created by the the Uni, i.e. lectures. groundsman, campus staff 

(Benefit of Deforestation, 2011)


It is also possible that the project will increase population within the town. This will again present the opportunity for more jobs; take for example the building of infrastructure, such as roads. It is an endless cycle of jobs being created; the more jobs, the more people, the more need for infrastructure to be built.

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