Tension in the forest

The Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, where I work, is almost the only patch of lowland tropical forest left in Southeast Asia, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage site, and accordingly it is (or should be) protected. As it happens, there is an enclave, right in the middle of it, along the coast, and a small forest trail that is used on market days to get to the other villages. Two years ago, as population was growing, strong pressures let to a plan to build a new road, and the clearing of a 7m-wide trail in the forest started. The regional government, WCS and other NGOs vehemently protested, and the cutting stopped. It started again last year, and again, a big effort, many meetings, threats, pressures, obtained a new halt. But each time, progress was made. This year, they started again, and instead of being few dozen men that could be scared away by Park rangers, they were hundreds. When Opo, Way Canguk station manager, my friend, and one of the best people I know, went there with two rangers to film the progress, there were tense moments (as you can imagine when dealing with many people brandishing machetes..).
The local authority keeps saying that he will stop it, but that he cannot control what people do. And the latest, scary news is that the Army is unofficially backing up the road construction (they have training camps in the enclave).
Yesterday “our people” had gone there to document the situation, and when we heard gunshots coming from that direction, a shiver ran down our spines. But nothing happened, and apparently they got some “hot” footage.
Today we are at the Park HQ for the (incredibly complex) transition, from a corrupted to a hopefully better head of the Park. They will talk about it.