Day 285 - 23 Oct 96 - Page 21


     
     1        Edie Bensilum says that in her statement, but that it is
     2        just not credible.  As we have heard from David Rose, the
     3        rainforest policy was formulated in around 1988, 1989.
     4
     5        We then have the various arguments over what does
     6        "recently" mean in this claimed policy, and I have been
     7        through that.
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I think I have got a pretty good grip
    10        of that, I have not got my notes in court, but I have made
    11        notes on that.
    12
    13   MR. MORRIS:   Right.  If it helps the reference to Gonzalez,
    14        and I am sure you made a note at the time, was day 68,
    15        page 31, line 12.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   He and Mr. Cesca said the same thing.
    18
    19   MR. MORRIS:   Yes.  I did check Edie Bensilum's statement
    20        again.
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, I have that very much in mind.
    23
    24   MR. MORRIS:   She did....  Well, it does not matter.  She
    25        definitely says in her statement that there was a ten year
    26        policy up to 1988 and a 25 year policy since, so that is
    27        the effect of her statement and the notes that she made
    28        and what David Rose said.  Obviously, if it was a ten year
    29        claimed policy up to 1988, it meant there would be no
    30        protection under that policy, if it was in force, in Costa
    31        Rica, which is what we are talking about in that case, for
    32        any destruction of forest up to 1978.  Actually, I will
    33        find her statement.  (Pause)  Here we are.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You need not refer me to her statement.
    36        I have got that very much in mind.  And I will have to
    37        decide what I make of it.
    38
    39   MR. MORRIS:   And it is interesting, if I can just point out
    40        something about her statement, because I think it is
    41        informative, is that in her paragraph 11 -- well, first of
    42        all, she says in paragraph 9 that she conceded it was a
    43        possibility that land might have been deforested only ten
    44        years earlier.  Oh, no, sorry, that is relating to when
    45        they start in a country.
    46
    47        She talks in paragraph 11 about farms being established in
    48        the 1950s.  Most of the forms supplying McDonald's in
    49        Costa Rica were established in the 1950s.  And as we have
    50        heard from John Carriere, that although farms might have
    51        been established at a certain time, the deforestation
    52        continues on the land owned by that farm, in any event, 
    53        because -- yes, whatever.  If they were being
    54        established -- well, it is a matter of evidence we will
    55        come on to later, really, but they are established from
    56        cleared forest, we would say, because that is what the
    57        whole process involved.
    58
    59        Have McDonald's ever used tropical forest beef?   Clearly
    60        they have.  We have proved that in this case.  In Costa

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