Day 240 - 24 Apr 96 - Page 24
1 2. This submission summarises briefly the following
2 issues: the environmental and ecological importance of all
3 tropical forest types; the environmental benefits of
4 forestry regeneration and the impact of clearance for
5 pasture and cattle ranching in Central America and Brazil.
6
7 3. There are three main broad classifications of tropical
8 forests, which include tropical rain, tropical moist and
9 tropical dry forest types. Tropical forests are also
10 broadly distinguished between lowland and upland types,
11 between closed and open types, between broadleaved, bamboo
12 and coniferous forests, and between primary (unspoilt),
13 secondary (regenerating) and pioneer (establishing) phases
14 of forest ecosystem development. These broad
15 classifications are used by all authorities, including the
16 UN Food and Agriculture Organisation."
17 A. Your Honour, I wonder if I could add one brief point to
18 that paragraph.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes?
21 A. Which is that there is no universally accepted taxonomy
22 for distinguishing the great diversity of tropical forest
23 types and species association on a smaller scale.
24
25 Q. Yes.
26
27 MR. MORRIS: Continuing to read:
28
29 "3.1. While rates of tropical deforestation and causes
30 vary from country to country, scientific silvicultural and
31 government concern (expressed internationally and within
32 individual countries) over the loss of tropical forests
33 covers all types. All types of tropical forest are
34 suffering unacceptable rates of clearance and degradation,
35 and are important for a number of reasons, including: the
36 maintenance of species diversity; the provision of valuable
37 economic products and goods such as timber and genetic
38 resources, and the provision and maintenance of
39 environmental services such as soil protection, and in most
40 cases watershed management.
41
42 3.2. When Friends of the Earth launched the first
43 international tropical forest campaign in 1985, we used the
44 term 'rainforest' to cover all tropical forest types under
45 threat from damaging development. This was a convenient
46 and evocative shorthand to help introduce the public and
47 politicians in developed nations like Britain to the
48 multiple issues involved in explaining why tropical forests
49 were important, why they were being destroyed and degraded,
50 and, most importantly, what could be done in developed and
51 developing nations to protect and conserve these crucial
52 global and sovereign natural resources.
53
54 3.3. The banner slogan used in our tropical forest
55 campaign was 'Save the Rainforests'. The popular and
56 non-scientific use of the word 'rainforest' in this way can
57 be likened to the similar campaign slogan 'Save the Whale',
58 used throughout the 1970s, 1980s and up to the present
59 day. Clearly this slogan referred to all whale species
60 under threat, and not to any particular whale or whale
