Why are forests affected by wars?

The Allies would not have been successful in the First World War and the Second World War if they had not been able to exploit the resources and people of their colonies. Both the World Wars had a devastating effect on the forests of India, Indonesia and elsewhere. In India, working plans were abandoned during the War and the forest department cut freely to meet British war needs. In Java, just before the Japanese occupied the region, the Dutch followed ‘a scorched earth’ policy, destroying sawmills and burning huge piles of giant teak logs so that they would not fall into Japanese hands. The Japanese then exploited the forests recklessly for their own war industries forcing forest villagers to cut down forests. Many villagers used this opportunity to expand cultivation in the forest. After the war, it was difficult for the Indonesia forest service to get this land back. As in India, people’s need for agricultural land has brought them into conflict with the forests department’s desire to control the land and exclude people from it.