In the last decades of the twentieth century the destruction of the Indonesian rainforest accelerated with the arrival of large multinational forestry industry companies. This is the story of a vast project to build a pulp mill in the untouched heart of Borneo. The promoters are Europeans, Indonesians and Taiwanese, backed by international banks that vie for a share in the rich rewards with a total disregard for the destruction that will be wreaked on the habitat of the indigenous peoples and the terrible effect that the mill would have on the natural environment. John Ennis arrives in Jakarta where he discovers an unexpectedly new world. Assigned by Antoine Brodzski the promoter to head the development, he is plunged into a conflict of financial and political interests in Suharto’s Indonesia, where dollars are more important than the obliteration of huge swaths of Borneo’s primary forests and its unique wildlife and ecosystem. From the boardrooms of Europe to the steaming forests and capitals of South East Asia, John Ennis is confronted with the dilemma of investment and employment, the motors of development for 200 million Indonesians, and the unaffordable cost that future generations will have to pay.
