Day 073 - 13 Jan 95 - Page 23


     
     1        that.  Then it says:  "In the more recent past, opposition
     2        arose because of the technological approach employed in
     3        forestry, the clumsiness of logging machines, the
     4        stereotyped measures applied, and the large size of logging
     5        operations in areas where ownership made it possible. That
     6        was when the forestry profession lost the confidence of the
     7        public."
     8
     9        It then goes on to say:  "Green values have gained a
    10        foothold in places where purely economic values used to
    11        prevail."  In fact, on page 21 it goes on and talks about
    12        the endangered species.
    13
    14   Q.   Please do so.  I have not a copy, but you quote the
    15        extracts you feel important.
    16        A.  There is a series of paragraphs headed:  "Finland's
    17        Endangered Species.  There are more than 40,000 animal and
    18        plant species in Finland with some of them poorly known.
    19        According to recent estimates, 1,692 of these are
    20        classified as being endangered species. ...  The number of
    21        species that have so far become extinct is 138 (i.e. no
    22        sure observations have been reported of these species since
    23        1965)."
    24
    25        It then deals with this in a bit more detail and then goes
    26        on:  "Nearly half of the endangered animal and plant
    27        species live in forests.  Herb-rich sites and old forests
    28        on heathland soils are particularly favoured by them."
    29
    30        Page 22:  "Ever tightening international competition has
    31        made it increasingly difficult for the Finnish forest
    32        industry to produce profits".
    33
    34        I would just say that forestry is a very competitive
    35        market.  At the moment Finland is suffering 20 per cent
    36        unemployment, and this is one of the reasons they are now
    37        trying to show, change their forest management because of
    38        consumer pressure recognising the bad management in the
    39        past.  They are now changing their management, not
    40        necessarily because the forest industry likes biodiversity
    41        (though I think many people within the forest industry do
    42        care about this), but in the international market their
    43        image went from beautiful to bad and they are now trying to
    44        get it back to beautiful again.
    45
    46        Yes, it says here, going on with "Much Can Be Done - At
    47        Little Cost":  "There is nowadays a dearth of decaying
    48        trees in our forests.  Such timber represents a special
    49        biotope for invertebrates and fungi.  The stringent quality
    50        demanded by industry concerning timber raw material has 
    51        made dead and decaying trees almost worthless [to the 
    52        industry]".  Very worthwhile to the species that inhabit 
    53        them, of course.
    54
    55        "It makes great sense to leave this material where it
    56        stands or lies; the same applies to aspen and other such
    57        hardwood species that the industry does not want."  I would
    58        point out that in Canada now aspen is being widely used for
    59        paper pulp in Alberta.  The new mill, Alpax(?) mill in
    60        Athabasca in Northern Alberta is taking 1600 tonnes a day

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