Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 29
1 the wetlands are those which are most noted for a very
2 broad diversity of flora and fauna. But I think it would
3 be fair to say that one of the reasons the programme has
4 been halted is that it would and has disturbed the balance
5 of nature to some extent.
6
7 Q. Can we move on to page 13? You said the Forestry
8 Commission spent 10.3 million on research. That is all
9 aspects of research, yes?
10 A. That is correct.
11
12 Q. In recent years there has been a shift of emphasis towards
13 research which included conservation, recreation, landscape
14 and water studies?
15 A. Correct.
16
17 Q. When did that shift become significant, would you say?
18 A. From the 1985 restatement of policy on forestry.
19
20 Q. So when that policy was brought in, when did the research
21 shift physically take place? Was that immediate or was it
22 within the next five years it began to really ----
23 A. Mr. Morris, I can only speak from my own direct
24 experience and that is that when I became a Forestry
25 Commissioner I did go to the forest research, and I was
26 quite surprised how much time and effort was put into
27 things other than the growing of trees.
28
29 Q. This restructuring of forests -- in paragraph 2 -- are now
30 practised in all European forests and in Scandinavia.
31 Would that restructure be occurring in the late 80s? Is it
32 roughly parallel to Britain?
33 A. If we are talking about Scandinavia -- the Scandinavian
34 policy has modified but, generally, they have always
35 regenerated as much as they could by natural regeneration.
36 It has been their pattern to do so and the mixtures of
37 species that you mentioned earlier, the aspens and the
38 rowans and the birch, of course, are significant in their
39 forests. Birch, incidentally, has about 17 per cent of the
40 total forest area.
41
42 Q. But for the other European forests has there also been some
43 kind of paralleled restructuring and rethinking in the late
44 80s or early 90s or whatever?
45 A. I think this is fairly evident if you are driving
46 through the forests of northern Europe, that you do see a
47 mixture. They are not all complete monocultures. There is
48 a mixture certainly along the routes that one is likely to
49 take. I think it has been a policy generally.
50
51 Q. I mean, in the specific countries that are mentioned as
52 relevant France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, do you
53 happen to know if that restructuring and rethinking has
54 occurred in the same way as it has occurred in the UK?
55 A. There have been additional species brought in. The
56 forest of the south of France and in northern part of Italy
57 would include large numbers of forest areas of eucalyptus,
58 for example. That is bringing in a different species than
59 was there before. How much that has actually been done for
60 environmental reasons as opposed to economic reasons is
