The destruction of trees by charcoal-burners has resulted in the almost complete deforestation of the island.
Coal then meant the carbonaceous residue obtained in the destructive distillation of wood, or what is known as charcoal, and the name collier was applied indifferently to both coal-miners and charcoal-burners.
Up to the middle of the 19th century the destruction of forests by timber-cutters, by charcoal-burners, and above all by shifting cultivation, was allowed to go on everywhere unchecked.
The destruction of the forests by timbercutters and charcoal-burners has been allowed to go on unchecked, no plantations have been laid out, and nothing has been done for forest conservation.