Day 240 - 24 Apr 96 - Page 38
1 tropical deforestation in Costa Rica had occurred as a
2 result of agricultural expansion and, as I have said
3 earlier this morning, there have been both official and
4 financial inducements for that.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think you are being asked about
7 that.
8
9 MS. STEEL: If you could say when the deforestation mostly took
10 place or over what period in that particular area.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You are being asked about a particular area.
13 We have heard evidence, which I will have to assess, which
14 may make the road line from Dominical to San Isidro
15 important, maybe, because there is evidence that cattle
16 were taken to be slaughtered to be processed into what
17 became McDonald's meat patties in the area of San Isidro
18 but not south of the line of that road. Do you understand?
19 A. I do, yes.
20
21 Q. I am only giving you that for general information, but what
22 Ms. Steel is asking you to do is if you can describe what
23 forest areas there are, if any, or have been in that
24 general sort of area, but we are to the west of the
25 mountains there.
26 A. San Isidro is the main population density of Costa
27 Rica, main population centre of Costa Rica, and both due to
28 colonisation pressures and due to cattle ranching, the area
29 where I am broadly indicating on the map from here down
30 through further south until one gets to the peninsula of
31 Ossa down to the southwest corner, has been progressively
32 deforested since the 1960s, and the clearance of forest
33 throughout this area primarily occurred in the 1960s, the
34 1970s and the very early 1980s and that is broadly
35 summarised. One can see that step by step clearance
36 broadly summarised in this map from Sader and Joyce, so we
37 would certainly characterise that as recent forest
38 clearance.
39
40 MS. STEEL: Thank you.
41 A. That land was given over in the main to cattle.
42
43 MR. MORRIS: That was from the Puntarenas peninsula, not really
44 a peninsula but down to the peninsula of Ossa. That is
45 where you indicated where you hand had your hand on the
46 map?
47 A. Is this what you mean here? From Puntarenas, yes, down
48 to that coastal area there in the Gulf de Nicoya and that
49 area has been one of the main stays of the cattle industry
50 over the last 3 decades. One of the reasons is because it
51 is easy forest to clear because it is lowland. It is
52 easily accessible as opposed to the much more difficult
53 terrain in the very steep mountainous interior. The
54 climatic conditions are more conducive to human settlement
55 as well.
56
57 MS. STEEL: I have one further question that I want to ask
58 about. During your campaign to protect tropical forests
59 throughout the 1980s, did you ever work with the World
60 Wildlife Fund or alongside them?
