Day 056 - 28 Nov 94 - Page 29
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Does "forest" have a meaning beyond
2 "woodland"?
3 A. Well, woodland is usually looked upon as something of a
4 smaller scale, my Lord.
5
6 Q. Yes. Where do you stop? Where has an area bearing trees
7 become so small that it does not count towards the total
8 cover of forest in a particular country?
9 A. I think that will again vary much from country to
10 country according to how they assess their own woodlands.
11 We speak in terms now of community forest, but that is
12 designation of area which will become forest as much as
13 anything else. Woodlands, on the whole, one is talking
14 about things of somewhat in the order of, say, 20 hectares
15 and less; whereas forest are 20 hectares and more. But, as
16 far as I know, there is no clear distinction made. A
17 woodland tends to be something standing separate from other
18 areas, I mean, in other words, identifiably an entity in
19 itself. Forest tends to be something where there is a
20 continuing link between one bit of forest and another bit
21 of forest over a large area.
22
23 Q. So, if a 500 acre farm had a 10 acre wood on it ---
24 A. It would be woodland.
25
26 Q. -- it would not count towards the total forest -----
27 A. It is certainly unlikely to come into the field of
28 productive forest. It all depends as to whether it has
29 been assessed by that particular area as being a forested
30 region or not, and that would differ.
31
32 MR. MORRIS: Some non-productive forest is logged, is it not?
33 A. Well, clearly, any woodland or any forest may have
34 timber extracted from it for a variety reasons, either as
35 individual trees or the necessity to clear away timber that
36 is becoming infected with fungus or any other wind throw
37 which may have affect the overall forest.
38
39 Q. Some National Parks in some countries are actually
40 commercially logged; is that correct?
41 A. In some countries they are commercially logged as the
42 viability of the forest overall. In the United States a
43 Forest Park will have a programme of management which
44 includes some economic harvesting and, in current terms --
45 I mean by that the last five or six years -- those
46 programmes which include harvesting will have been
47 discussed openly as a public forum and will have become the
48 result of quite a long investigation before that programme
49 is approved.
50
51 Q. Yes on point (iii) on page 3, just a small point: "2.3
52 billion potential trees" in the fourth line. Would it be
53 fair to say that only something like 15 per cent of trees
54 planted actually develop into full trees?
55 A. This again varies on the site, but the United States
56 average now is over 85 per cent of seedlings planted or
57 regeneration forest succeeding. In this country, I am
58 happy to say, it is well over 90 per cent.
59
60 Q. Is that an improvement on past years?
