Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 53


     
     1        need for the extraction relevant to this case to involve
     2        severe cases of erosion.
     3
     4   MR. MORRIS:  Basically, never mind new practices now and new
     5        concerns, say 40 years between 1945 and 1985, was soil
     6        erosion a problem that was fairly -- has it been a
     7        problem?
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If you are suggesting that there are areas
    10        from which timber is taken from which pulp is created, from
    11        which packaging is created for use by McDonald's where soil
    12        erosion is a problem, then put it.
    13
    14   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  I will put it to you that there has been some
    15        problem of soil erosion caused by intensive harvesting of
    16        forests in the countries which you have identified that are
    17        relevant to this case, say, going back from before the
    18        1980s?
    19        A.  Well, unquestionably one could find areas where bad
    20        practices have applied.  If you go back far enough where
    21        considerations of erosion and because responsibility for
    22        the future of the forest lands did not remain with the
    23        companies doing the extraction, there will have been
    24        abuses.  There cannot be any question that that is a
    25        progress from the state of affairs that used to apply,
    26        particularly in the immediate postwar period when you had
    27        actions of forestation on areas which were not previously
    28        forested.  But I would also point out that the fact that
    29        certain areas were not planted originally in the uplands of
    30        most countries I state, historical deforestation followed
    31        by extensive grazing by animals with little in the way of
    32        input, has gradually led to soil degradation.  Further
    33        down, "Generally trees are planted on sloping land to
    34        prevent soil erosion."
    35
    36        Now the planting of trees on sloping land is a protection.
    37        The question is, what happens if they reach maturity, is
    38        there any real danger that people will bring the thing back
    39        to further soil erosion?  My contention is that these are
    40        not the areas that would be likely to be a main source of
    41        supply for packaging material.
    42
    43   MR. MORRIS:  What about in the USA and Canada, is there a
    44        greater problem in your estimation of soil erosion in those
    45        countries?
    46        A.  Yes, because a lot of the mountainous country on the
    47        West Coast of America and Canada can present foresters with
    48        that problem.  There is no doubt that those areas now which
    49        are watersheds and those areas which are subject to this
    50        kind of degradation, are being protected and they were not 
    51        being protected 15, 20 years ago. 
    52 
    53   Q.   Moving on to water pollution, I think we have covered some
    54        of this.  The problem of conifers, conifers have a
    55        particular property, do they not, of -- I cannot remember
    56        the word really -- attracting ----
    57        A.  Scavenging I think.
    58
    59   Q.   Can you just explain how they are responsible for
    60        increasing acidification in the area around in the water

Prev Next Index