Day 073 - 13 Jan 95 - Page 38


     
     1        cutting from the forest industry is the major cause of
     2        clear cutting.  There are other reasons why there are clear
     3        cutting in Canada but they are much smaller, such as oil
     4        exploration and things like this.   But, yes, these will be
     5        replaced, these natural forests -- this is really all old
     6        growth -- these natural forests will be replaced with
     7        plantations of single species or one or two species of
     8        favourite, commercial coniferous trees.
     9
    10   Q.   Mr. Mallinson, I believe, in his evidence accepted that the
    11        Canadian forestry practices have come under a lot of
    12        criticism.
    13        A.  Yes.
    14
    15   Q.   I cannot remember if he accepted that they were bad
    16        practices or not.  Then he referred us to an accord which
    17        the court may remember, Canada Forest Accord, which was, if
    18        you remember, signed by a number of government departments
    19        and environmental organisations?
    20        A.  Yes.
    21
    22   Q.   I just want to ask you a question about that kind of
    23        accord.  What does that mean in real terms?  Does it mean
    24        that the environmental movement or those representatives of
    25        it think the situation is now fine or what does it mean?
    26        A.  Well, the accord, if you look at the people who signed
    27        it, it was mostly government agencies of one form or
    28        another and industry agencies of one form or another.  In
    29        Canada, to a great extent, the industry and the government
    30        are exactly the same thing; they go hand in hand.
    31        Basically, there was about three environmental groups which
    32        I have never heard of who had signed on to it, but if I was
    33        looking for a document that had authenticity and was
    34        carrying weight, I would be looking for an environmental
    35        group such as WWF Canada signing on to that document.
    36
    37        I particularly choose WWF Canada because WWF, as I said
    38        before, is not a campaigning organisation.  They do their
    39        very, very best to work with industry, with the
    40        conventional standard government agencies.  And, I mean, it
    41        is not signed up by Green Peace Canada, it is not signed up
    42        by sort of Friends of (inaudible), it is not signed up by
    43        Northern Rockies Protection Alliance, it is not signed up
    44        really by anybody I have ever heard of, whether they are
    45        radical ones or conservative ones like the Sierra Club of
    46        Canada and, particularly, WWF of Canada, and I would say, I
    47        do not know if it is still so, but WWF Canada used to have
    48        as its Chair a forest industry person; it might not be so
    49        now.
    50 
    51   Q.   So, the environmental problems that you claim or you 
    52        believe (and also Mr. Mallinson, I think, accepted) that 
    53        Canada had come under criticism for its forest practices
    54        quite  extensively ---
    55        A.  Yes.
    56
    57   Q.   -- has not much changed, as far as you know?
    58        A.  Very little has changed.  The only thing that really
    59        has changed is Canadian either the State or the Federal
    60        Government have set up what I would call reference forests,

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