Day 239 - 23 Apr 96 - Page 35
1 Q. I am sorry Mr. Monbiot, I cannot accept that. We can find
2 closed canopy forest in this country, but it is not
3 rainforest?
4 A. No, that is correct. In this country it is not called
5 rainforest.
6
7 Q. By why is it called rainforest?
8 A. It is a broad category which has been applied to many
9 types of forest all around the world, largely in
10 equatorial, but not solely in equatorial regions which I
11 think, as I have maintained, is not a scientific term. But
12 is one that is popularly understood to mean a certain type
13 of dense tropical forest which is likely, in many cases, to
14 be biodiverse, but in some parts even in the very middle of
15 the Amazon basin, not particularly biodiverse. There are
16 no hard and fast characteristics of rainforest. You cannot
17 say this is and this is not rainforest, unless it is very
18 clearly not a forest in this part of the world.
19
20 Q. The word "rain" must have some significance?
21 A. Certainly, but the word "rainforest" is one which has
22 -- you know, "Save the Rainforest" was a slogan used
23 throughout the 1980's, and still used today and it applies,
24 at least in the popular mind, to a very broad range of
25 habitats. It is not -- and I will repeat this -- it is not
26 a scientific term and it does not reflect any particular
27 scientifically recognized characteristics.
28
29 Q. Despite the fact that some scientists do use it in a
30 precise way, to indicate the amount of water indicated by
31 the word "rain"?
32 A. Scientists choose to use the word "moist forest" for
33 that purpose in order to, if they are really talking about
34 it in a precise way, some people do use rainforest. It is
35 one of these terms which moves in and out of a vast amount
36 of literature, often applied in a slapdash way but the term
37 which the scientists I have worked with in Brazil prefer is
38 "moist tropical forest" to distinguish it from "dryer
39 tropical forest".
40
41 Q. And if it be seasonal, how do you get in the distinction
42 then, as opposed to evergreen?
43 A. You could call it seasonal moist tropical forest, or
44 seasonal rainforest. I mean, again, that is not one of the
45 necessary defining characteristics in the popular press, in
46 the popular mind, in the popular perceptions of what
47 rainforest is. I have to keep emphasizing this. It is a
48 very broad and largely ill-understood category.
49
50 Q. I might be forgiven, Mr. Monbiot, if I asked you how it
51 comes you know when I do not about what the popular mind
52 thinks or does not think. Can you tell me that?
53 A. Well, because I have been involved in rainforest
54 campaigning now since 1985 and I think I have had some
55 contact with just about every so-called rainforest campaign
56 which has taken place in this country. So I am very aware
57 of what the people are talking about in this sense and
58 indeed, there have been rainforest campaigns about
59 rainforest timber which have been in places which are not
60 moist tropical forest, but comparatively dry tropical
