A drone hovers above, unnoticed by the workmen below, as a yellow excavator plunges its bucket into a large mound of wooden logs, black smoke spewing out its exhaust.
The footage pans out to show a vast expanse of timber piled high in a plot on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, serving as a mass graveyard for felled trees set to be transported to an adjacent factory.
Without context, it’s a bleak but unremarkable scene of developing world industry—one that usually wouldn’t earn a second glance. But the significance of the images, captured in July, aren’t lost on Laurie Parsons.
In full: https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgmemg/cambodia-deforestation-fashion-lidl
