Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 57


     
     1        possible to extract from that paragraph that the more
     2        forest we have, the more carbon we absorb and the more we
     3        are avoiding the necessity of using much more unhelpful
     4        materials in terms of carbon dioxide.
     5
     6        You may also note that I go on to state that young trees
     7        absorb C02 and give out oxygen in the process of
     8        photosynthesis and growth, and old mature trees are at best
     9        neutral in this process.  It is also fair to say that the
    10        snags and fallen trees that drop into the forest in natural
    11        regeneration and in the current processes, are actually
    12        putting carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere; a small
    13        amount but, on the other hand, the fact is that older trees
    14        are neutral, younger trees are absorbing carbon dioxide.
    15
    16   Q.   Page 18.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  By all means if there is something you
    19        omitted, but you asked quite a lot about this yesterday
    20        morning, did you not, in fact?
    21
    22   MR. MORRIS:  Yes, I was going to miss almost all of that out.
    23        When you say in the last paragraph, "Forestry practice
    24        everywhere avoids clear cutting on steep unstable slopes,"
    25        that is not necessarily the case, is it, in the USA and
    26        Canada?
    27        A.  Certainly it is the practice now.  I am not suggesting
    28        that 10 or 15 years ago they did not just sweep up the
    29        hillside and clear it off. This was very unfortunate and
    30        the whole forest industry worldwide has been complaining to
    31        the Canadian forest industry about it and a lot of change
    32        has been taking place by peer pressure.
    33
    34   Q.   When you say in the second paragraph, "Now that the
    35        practice of felling smaller areas or coupes has been
    36        adopted in virtually all Northern Hemisphere forest
    37        regions", is that sort of the same time-scale we are
    38        talking about with the other developments, sort of late
    39        80s?  Would that be the cross-roads as far as that is
    40        concerned?
    41        A.  I think probably if we are taking it worldwide the
    42        answer is, yes.  I think you will also appreciate that
    43        smaller coupes in Scandinavia where the forest owners only
    44        had small areas, were a practice already.  I mean, if you
    45        only got 30 hectares you do not knock the lot out all in
    46        one go.  It is part of their income; not part of their
    47        capital sale.  They do not want to dispose of the lot.
    48
    49   Q.   But as far as the other countries are concerned that we
    50        have already quoted and you have already quoted, that would 
    51        apply? 
    52        A.  Yes. 
    53
    54   Q.   The sort the crossroads would have been the late 80s, early
    55        90s?
    56        A.  We have spoken about Canadian and North America
    57        practice, particularly the Canadian practice, of now having
    58        a lower average size of coupe than before.  I think we said
    59        British Columbia had now an average of just over 34
    60        hectares per cut, where certainly it was more than 10, 15

Prev Next Index