Day 073 - 13 Jan 95 - Page 27
1 and looking at the forests where they are getting their
2 paper from and making sure the very best standards are
3 happening there and not just any standard that happens to
4 be current. They have the power to do this. They are a
5 big company, and other companies in this country and
6 Germany, and various other places, are now making these
7 assessments and purchasing with regard to those
8 assessments.
9
10 Q. I think that deals with that page. Pages 10, 11 and 12
11 refer to the USA. Oregon has been mentioned and the West
12 Coast of America. You have concluded on page 12 their use
13 of paper must be bad for the environment. What does that
14 conclusion relate to? Does that relate to America in
15 general, or does it relate to the inevitability of access
16 to pulp from the West Coast or Oregon?
17 A. Though basically chapter 3 is that, the whole item on
18 chapter 3 is centred around my experience of West Coast, US
19 forests, it is really -- as such it is a sampler of the
20 nature of old growth forests in all areas.
21
22 Q. Not just America?
23 A. Not just in America. This is one I am very familiar
24 with, therefore, I am writing about it, but I am not saying
25 that, you know, it is the only area. If McDonald's are
26 using paper from the West Coast of the United States or the
27 West Coast of Canada, then there will be problems. If they
28 are using old growth material from other places, Sweden,
29 Finland, Canada, which most likely is old growth if it
30 comes from Alberta or other places in Canada, then it is
31 bad for the environment. This is just typical of what old
32 growth is all about, the social culture, and other issues.
33 I did this as a case study.
34
35 Q. When you say "old growth", that includes natural or
36 semi-natural or ancient forests?
37 A. Yes.
38
39 Q. In general, in any country, which are top priority for
40 protection?
41 A. Yes.
42
43 Q. Are you saying, therefore, just to summarise, by not
44 specifying that they would not use paper sourced from those
45 forests -- what are you saying there? What are you saying?
46 A. Well, I am saying they should be -- I would think
47 McDonald's at the very first level should be saying: "We
48 are not taking any material from any old growth forest
49 anywhere". That is what I am saying.
50
51 I must say that if they said that in the United States, you
52 might say that loggers in certain parts of the United
53 States and Canada are pretty boisterous people, and I would
54 not be surprised to find that their McDonald's stores in
55 the United States and Canada were picking it out or even,
56 quite possibly, fire bombing. People are quite lively
57 around there, if they made that statement; but that is
58 nothing to do with the environmental quality of the timber.
59
60 MR. JUSTICE BELL: A more sensible middle route might be not to
