Day 241 - 26 Apr 96 - Page 29
1 was very loosely used throughout the 70's and 80's and that
2 is something that they can help on because they were
3 involved in campaigns, but not only that, that I am just
4 concerned that evidence about destruction of the dry
5 forests or any other times of tropical forests should not
6 be excluded from the trial at this stage, without having
7 had the full argument on.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have not excluded any evidence about dry
10 forest. I have not said, for instance -- let me just try
11 to help you with an example; just pause a moment, do not
12 say anything more -- Mr. Ratter says in his statement:
13 "Cerrado (tree-savannah) is the predominant natural
14 vegetation of Central Brazil". He then says how much area
15 it covers. "It is the second most extensive vegetation
16 formation of Brazil, exceeded only by the Amazonian
17 rainforest. The cerrado region extends from the margin of
18 Amazonian forest to outlying regions". He then says: "The
19 cerrado region has enormous extensions of gallery forest
20 including the drainage".
21
22 He says later: "So much emphasis has been put on the
23 emotive issue of the destruction of the rainforest that the
24 world has largely forgotten the fate of their floristic
25 cousins, the savannah woodlands".
26
27 Dr. Ratter may say different if you actually call him as
28 opposed to reading his statement under the Civil Evidence
29 Act, if he is still abroad. But, on the face of that, it
30 might be argued that to Dr. Ratter rainforest is one thing
31 and cerrado woodland is another, even if it falls between
32 the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
33
34 But I am not going to say you should not call Dr. Ratter to
35 tell me about the cerrado forest; you can call him and read
36 his statement and get him to approve it, or put it in and
37 just say: "Is that your statement?" I am prepared to sort
38 out later whether it helps me on an issue in the case. I
39 was not stopping you doing that. Mr. Rampton from time to
40 time has said it is not relevant and, for all I know, when
41 I hear the argument I may agree with him, but I have not
42 reached a decision on it.
43
44 MS. STEEL: OK. I do not know, I was just a bit concerned that
45 there were, there seemed to be, or something, restrictions
46 coming down, but if basically it is all open .....
47
48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The restriction was on a witness telling me
49 what rainforest would mean to the ordinary reader, because
50 my view at the moment is that is a decision I have to make
51 for myself -- rainforest in this leaflet, I mean, not what
52 it means when Mr. Monbiot is giving evidence, not what it
53 means to Mr. Secrett when he is giving evidence. They gave
54 me some evidence about that, but rainforest, what it
55 actually means when it appears in the leaflet.
56
57 MS. STEEL: I just think there is a bit of an ambiguity there
58 because I would say that probably most people in this
59 country had not heard of rainforests until the rainforest
60 campaign started, and so their knowledge of what
