Day 068 - 16 Dec 94 - Page 45


     
     1        accord with your evidence that you have given?
     2        A.  Can you say that again?
     3
     4   Q.   The last sentence of the translation at the bottom, does
     5        that accord with your evidence as to what you have been
     6        told?
     7        A.  What you are saying is what I have said before, there
     8        has been a cattle area, it has been a cattle area?
     9
    10   Q.   Sorry.  Never mind the 70 years, forget that.  But that is
    11        the region which -----
    12        A.  The region, Guanacaste?  Yes, Guanacaste.  I did
    13        recognise that word.
    14
    15   Q.   So what have you been told by Mr. Madrigal as regards where
    16        they have been getting beef from since they started in
    17        Costa Rica, or what the policy is in terms of the source
    18        and Guanacaste?
    19        A.  Our policy is to use, as I said before -- let me take
    20        that back -- not to use beef that will come from areas that
    21        are rainforest, considered to be rainforest or recently
    22        deforested areas, by your definition.  That applies to our
    23        policy.  It is the same they are using here; it complies
    24        with our policy.  The Guanacaste area, it is not in the
    25        rainforest.
    26
    27   Q.   Have you been told that that is the only area?
    28        A.  No, I have not been told that is the only area.  There
    29        are other areas within Costa Rica that are cattle areas
    30        that are in the dry forest, that is not rainforest.
    31        I never said it was the only area.
    32
    33   Q.   So it will use cattle from all over Costa Rica, as long it
    34        is not from recently deforested land?
    35        A.  Or rainforest area; that is correct.
    36
    37   Q.   Some of the Guanacaste region has been deforested since the
    38        last 70 years; are you aware of that?
    39        A.  It is what I know, what I know, it is a deforested area
    40        for more than 70 years, what I have been told.  What I have
    41        been told is that when the Spaniards came, when cattle was
    42        introduced, it was in that particular area, because it is
    43        suitable for cattle production, because nothing else of
    44        agricultural value will grow there.  The rainfall in that
    45        area is between 60 to 70 inches per year.  Rainforest
    46        require 600 or more rainfall.  So, it has been an area for
    47        many, many years where cattle has been there.
    48
    49   Q.   So if we look at the other letter of 1st January, 1992,
    50        tab 81 --- 
    51        A.  Which one? 
    52 
    53   Q.   The last one -- it indicates, does it not, that there is a
    54        region in the southwest that is being used, as well as two
    55        regions in the northwest -- I do not know what they would
    56        be -- and that these three regions were deforested in the
    57        50s to 60s?
    58        A.  Sorry, was that a question?
    59
    60   Q.   Have you got any response to that?  This was in 1992.

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