I get that. It's exactly the same in my country. When a developer wanted a land, and it was forest reserve, magically it erupt into lava and nothing survive. Government have "no choice" since it's broken regardless, might as well sell it for good. At least someone is taking care of that piece of useless land.
If you remember the last time I told you government "take back" the mountain in my hometown? Initially they wanted to collect 200 bucks a year from hiker, now they no longer need that 200 bucks. Instead, a "small" portion of the lower mountain being leveled for building resorts 🤣
I think, both yours and my country function pretty similarly. Accidents happened for a purpose.
"Same same but different" as they say here in Cambodia. Seems like a similar government strategy, perhaps there should be a unity government for Malaybodia, and we can work together to destroy nature in a more cooperative manner 😁.
Funny, but one of the few things I love about the USA is our national parks, national forest, and all different types of wilderness areas. Surely we would've destroyed like anywhere else in the world, but Europeans only arrived a few hundred years ago, just as human governments were beginning to understand the value of preserving wilderness. Unfortunately for Cambodia most of its forests were destroyed before modern science would provide reasons to keep some of it around 🤔😒.