Day 056 - 28 Nov 94 - Page 54
1 is not of the same nature as our own peat land in the
2 Caithness area. The majority of peat land in Finland had
3 trees on it in the first place. What in fact happened was
4 a managed regime in Finland whereby they drained the peat
5 land to lower the water table which encouraged improved
6 forest growth. On that total 10 million hectares of forest
7 land which is peat land, 5 million hectares, half the
8 total, has been drained in that way. That is the forest
9 regime that is applied; it is not planting trees where
10 trees did not exist before.
11
12 Q. But draining the peat land would have an environmental
13 effect, would it not?
14 A. It would improve the forest and, on the whole, with a
15 less wet land on which biodiversity could flourish, it has
16 increased the amount of biodiversity.
17
18 Q. I am on page 4 now. I am trying to move on. We are coming
19 to biodiversity a bit later on.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you understand the way Mr. Mallinson has
22 done the calculation, coming out with areas at the end of
23 the day, because it is going to be important for me to know
24 in due course whether his calculation is something I can
25 accept or whether it is challenged in some way. If you do
26 not understand it, there is no shame in saying so and
27 asking him to work through it. It will take a bit of time,
28 but it may be one of the more important areas of issue in
29 this section of forest and trees.
30
31 MR. MORRIS: I do not understand it. I did not necessarily see
32 any benefit for him to go through it, but maybe it would
33 benefit.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Otherwise I might just accept it and then at
36 the end of the day wonder why you are arguing, if you are
37 arguing, that it is wrong, you see.
38
39 MR. MORRIS: I am not sure if I am capable of asking searching
40 questions on it that would bring out the -----
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What you could do is ask him to go through it
43 now so that you understand this afternoon the way he has
44 it. Then if Mr. Mallinson is coming back, say, on
45 Wednesday morning, if in the meantime you realised you do
46 have a challenge to it you can put the challenge to him
47 then because you do then understand the way he has worked
48 it out. Do you see?
49
50 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I think I will do that. If I can finish off
51 page 4 first, so at least I am happy I have moved on from
52 that page. On the subject of -- it is in the middle of the
53 page, well, two-thirds of the way down almost, "All notable
54 timber for packaging and paper comes from managed forests
55 which are plantation grown." That is not the case in
56 Canada, though, is it, that the majority of ----
57 A. Well, we then come down to questions which you have not
58 actually asked but which may be relevant, and that is that
59 I cannot find that the paper mills of the area of
60 old-growth forest in Western Canada, nor then equally in
