Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 30
1 questionable.
2
3 Q. I believe there are very strong environmental concerns
4 about eucalyptus, eucalyptus plantations?
5 A. There have been expressions of concern about it,
6 although a mature eucalyptus forest is a very elegant
7 forest.
8
9 Q. There are quite serious problems with draining the water
10 table from eucalyptus plantations, is there not?
11 A. The eucalyptus uses a lot of water and, therefore, you
12 have to make sure your plantings are not going to affect
13 other considerations.
14
15 Q. Do you mean that is an example you are giving of
16 restructuring and rethinking in an environmentally
17 conscious direction?
18 A. Not really, Mr. Morris. I am not actually stating that
19 the countries concerned have done all their planting
20 programmes for environmental reasons. But, equally, such
21 matters as the planting of the eucalyptus is not entirely
22 relevant because eucalyptus is not used as a resource
23 normally for packaging material.
24
25 Q. No, I know, but I was trying to identify the relevant
26 forests relevant to this case of those countries
27 I mentioned, whether the kind of rethinking and
28 restructuring which you have suggested happened in Britain
29 at the end of 80s, for example, has happened in those other
30 countries as well ---
31 A. Mr. Morris -----
32
33 Q. -- relevant to those forests that are relevant to this
34 case?
35 A. Yes, the direct answer to this is that the European
36 forestry organisations meet with great regularity and have
37 all been very much through their governments attendant at
38 the various Commission on Sustainable Development and the
39 other meetings on the environment, and the government
40 policies have all been modified in accordance with those
41 changing rules.
42
43 Q. Is it fair to say that all the forest industry and
44 governments of those countries recognise some of the
45 damaging qualities of the plantation practices that were
46 happening since the Second World War and are now concerned
47 to take steps to improve the situation; would that be a
48 fair statement?
49 A. I think it would be fair to say that the recognition of
50 the environmental benefits and responsibilities of forestry
51 are very widely accepted now. As for restructuring for the
52 appearance of the forest, that is not necessarily directly
53 relevant to the degree or extent of biodiversity in a
54 forest, because many of the European forests are, by our
55 standards, highly extended in terms of maturity. They are
56 older forests in terms of the number of older trees and,
57 with quite strong thinning regimes, there is a very
58 considerable biodiversity in a number of European forests.
59
60 Q. So, in the other countries which you mentioned, just say
