Day 286 - 24 Oct 96 - Page 30
1 that, for example, the Nicoya Peninsula is all moist forest
2 or wet forest. The Tozey map, which is the most accurate
3 on life zones, defines the whole of the Nicoya Peninsula as
4 tropical moist forest or pre-montain wet forest. And that
5 is one of the areas McDonald's have said was supplying
6 them.
7
8 And if we check that with the deforestation map, the Sader
9 and Joyce map from the tropical rainforests book, the
10 Nicoya Peninsula, and I think Dr. Carriere adopted this,
11 these progressive deforestation, this information, that the
12 Nicoya Peninsula was largely deforested between 1950 and
13 1961, exactly when McDonald's says the ranches were
14 established that were supplying them. And the area around
15 Liberia in the Tozey map, which McDonald's have said they
16 received supplies from, is characterised as pre-montain
17 moist forest, as a life zone, and although that may have
18 been deforested at an earlier date, according to the
19 deforestation maps. So the point that I am trying to make
20 is that McDonald's have a fundamental contradiction at the
21 centre of their case on Costa Rica, in their own words.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
24
25 MR. MORRIS: Can I also say that the underneath the Sader and
26 Joyce map the note read, and it was read out to the court:
27 Besides primary forest shown in black, much degraded and
28 regrowth forest also occurred, eg for 1983 the map shows
29 that 17 percent of primary forest cover but 33.5 percent of
30 the country had forest of some kind. By 1983 only rugged
31 montain rainforests remained relatively undisturbed.
32
33 So what we are saying the expert opinion is, and I think
34 Mr. Secrett said this in the witness box as well about
35 Costa Rica, was that the deforestation is greater than the
36 maps indicate and continues after, it looks like an area of
37 deforestation, sorry, where there is a wide area - this is
38 what Charles Secrett said about it - for example the San
39 Isidro area, that the deforestation in the San Isidro area
40 would have continued beyond the indications that mere maps
41 would show.
42
43 And also John Carriere made that point very clear, that the
44 farms are established at a time, but those farms include
45 large tracts of forested areas and the farms expand the
46 cattle ranching area over a long period of time. I don't
47 know how long he said. So the deforestation continues
48 within and by the established farms. That is another line,
49 we say, McDonald's have invented to confuse the issue, the
50 established farms issue, bearing in mind that the farms
51 were established in the 1950s, so they were hardly long
52 established anyway. But the deforestation would have
53 continued on those farms into the '60s, '70s and '80s, as
54 well, until, as we have heard, there was some sea change in
55 Costa Rica where governmental policy changed.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
58
59 MR. MORRIS: If, and this is where the plaintiffs have the
60 centre of their contradiction, on one hand they are saying
