Day 240 - 24 Apr 96 - Page 34
1
2 "All such forests can provide to a greater or lesser
3 extent certain products like fuel, fuel wood or timber, and
4 environmental services such as soil erosion control.
5 Generally, it is true to say that the most valuable
6 tropical forest types are primary forests, given the range
7 of species, and environmental goods and services which they
8 uniquely provide in combination. Any land use, such as
9 pasture for cattle ranching on formally tropical forested
10 land which prevents natural regeneration or reforestation
11 occurring, can be described as environmentally damaging for
12 these reasons. It should also be noted that soil erosion
13 rates, for example, in pastures on formerly tropical
14 forested areas soar.
15
16 5. In conclusion, McDonald's Corporation, as a global
17 supplier of beef products to mass markets, must accept some
18 responsibility for encouraging development and land use
19 pressures that result in the clearance of tropical
20 forests."
21 A. Your Honour, I think that it would be important to
22 point out in relation to that final paragraph 5 that the
23 political and economic and social forces that lead to
24 tropical forest degradation and destruction to a greater or
25 lesser extent interweave and are dependent on each other.
26 So, for example, a typical sequence of development
27 pressures that we would see in tropical forest areas is for
28 the first incursions to be made by logging or mining
29 companies that remove certain products from the forest,
30 minerals or timber, but that the roads, the access roads
31 that they leave in place are then used by other development
32 interests to further clear and degrade the forest and these
33 would typically be in Central America and Brazil, landless
34 peasants or settlers and cattle ranchers, and those
35 development pressures invariably lead to the virtual or
36 complete eradication of forest cover. This is, as my
37 statement points out, very definitely the case in countries
38 like Costa Rica.
39
40 Q. When?
41 A. Sorry. My conclusion was, therefore, that the
42 McDonald's Corporation in helping to stimulate markets for
43 beef from formerly tropical forested lands have to bear
44 some responsibility for their clearance and degradation.
45
46 Q. Do you, having read that second statement, stand by what
47 was read?
48 A. Yes, I do.
49
50 Q. Just a couple of questions about maps. I do not know
51 whether the witness has these maps. The Cotter maps, I am
52 not sure where they have been put, the two Cotter maps.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me find mine.
55
56 MR. MORRIS: You have not been to Guatemala; have you?
57 A. No, I have not.
58
59 Q. Regarding Brazil and Costa Rica. In Brazil, do you have
60 any comment about the map of Brazil by Dr. Cotter.
