Day 251 - 17 May 96 - Page 28


     
     1
     2   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I am in the column of legends on the
     3        right-hand side of the map.  I have gone right to the
     4        bottom where it says, I am not going to attempt the
     5        Portuguese, where it says:  "Areas of ecological tension
     6        contact between types of vegetation", at least that is the
     7        translation.  Some of it is contact, whatever that means,
     8        and the other is agricultural activities; is that right?
     9        A.  Yes.
    10
    11   Q.   Can you help me?  SN you see is in the first line of the
    12        words under those coloured squares, rectangles?
    13        A.  Yes.
    14
    15   Q.   SE, SO, SN?
    16        A.  Yes.
    17
    18   Q.   We assume that this means a mixture, because it is an area
    19        of contact.  The first word is "savana" and the next word
    20        is "floresta estacional"; what does that mean?
    21        A.  It means -- well I don't know really what it means.  I
    22        mean, the Portuguese means "seasonal", is seasonal.
    23        Seasonal forest, but I do not know quite whether this is
    24        referring to areas which are flooded, in the flooded
    25        forest.
    26
    27   Q.   I can suggest that it means deciduous?
    28        A.  No.  Well, that would not be the way that --
    29
    30   Q.   It is perhaps not fair, because you have said you are not
    31        an expert on trees?
    32        A.  I would not have thought it meant that, but I really am
    33        not the right person to be asking.
    34
    35   Q.   Only two other things then, Miss Branford.  First of all,
    36        from your general knowledge of the, if I can call it
    37        "colonisation" of the Amazon, am I right in thinking that
    38        the movement of the deforestation (and this is a huge
    39        generalisation, I am sure there are lots of exceptions) but
    40        the movement of the deforestation has been largely south to
    41        north?
    42        A.  It has been south to north.
    43
    44   Q.   And westwards?
    45        A.  And westwards as well.
    46
    47   Q.   But say one took Cuiaba as a starting point, just a random
    48        starting point, there has been a push of deforestation
    49        northwards and westwards from there; is that right?
    50        A.  Yes.  Northwards and westwards. 
    51 
    52   Q.   The earliest deforestation in that process therefore, am I 
    53        right, is that which is most southerly, or most easterly at
    54        its starting point?
    55        A.  It does not happen in this very unilinear way.  They
    56        will open a road, create a town and then there will be
    57        deforestation back southwards as the area is cleared around
    58        that town.  But within that kind of zigzag, you are
    59        certainly right in saying the movement is south to north
    60        and from east to west.  But, as I said, it is a zigzag

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