Day 073 - 13 Jan 95 - Page 29


     
     1
     2   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, may I understand, is the suggestion to be
     3        that McDonald's are responsible for the decision of the
     4        people who planted those trees?  Is that what I understand
     5        the position to be?
     6
     7   MR. MORRIS:  It is a question for comment, is it not,
     8        Mr. Rampton?
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  I wonder what the suggestion is made about it.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is just this.  The picture I got from
    13        Mr. Mallinson, Mr. Hopkins may agree or not agree.
    14        Granted.  Let us suppose for a moment that it were
    15        established that McDonald's were using paper products which
    16        had come from timber taken from coniferous forestation
    17        which has followed the extensive deforestation which
    18        followed the First and Second World Wars, where do I go
    19        from there?  Mr. Mallinson said that as those forests are
    20        being harvested a more sensible attitude is being taken.
    21        One might assume from that that use of the timber from
    22        those forests is leading to an improvement rather than
    23        something else?
    24        A.  I would not agree.  I agree that there is now a change
    25        in the structure of forests, and the Forestry Authority is
    26        trying to get some variation in age species into their
    27        plantations.  These are the ones they own.  This is not
    28        necessarily a privately held forest land.  There is still
    29        plantation going on, in fact, in the flow countries, as far
    30        as I know; private, not public, private forestry is going
    31        on in flow countries of Scotland.  I know this only by
    32        second hand because I have a company who are trying to sell
    33        me bits of woodland, who say, "Unlike the other people, we
    34        will not advise you to buy in the flow country and plant in
    35        the flow country.  It is not economically on".
    36
    37        It seems that, yes, there are improvements, but things are
    38        not good yet, and if you really wanted to get back to a
    39        good situation you would be converting your coniferous
    40        forests back into broad leaf forests.  If you wanted to do
    41        the environmentally correct thing, that is what you would
    42        be doing.  That is not happening.  The plantations are
    43        being modified, not eliminated.  Plantation on new land is
    44        still happening in Scotland.  People are trying to sell me
    45        bits of it.
    46
    47   MR. MORRIS:  So, in terms of your comment on page 23 regarding
    48        Scotland -----
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not suggesting you ask any question 
    51        about it, but for completeness, when I gave you references 
    52        to general statements about paper products sourced from 
    53        various areas having an adverse effect, I omitted 6.7.4.,
    54        which was England.
    55
    56   MR. MORRIS:  Is your position for Scotland and for England
    57        roughly the same?
    58        A.  Well, that it affects the environment and biodiversity
    59        to use material from there.
    60

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