Day 284 - 22 Oct 96 - Page 34
1 rainforest I am entitled to say, 'Well, pull the other
2 one.'
3
4 MR. MORRIS: Right. Well, first of all, dry forest is not
5 actually dry by the definition that we would use the term.
6 I think it was described by one of our expert witnesses as
7 typical temperate forest as we understand it such as we get
8 in Sherwood Forest, or whatever, in the UK. So it is not
9 exactly parched, or whatever. So anything, certainly
10 anything above that, would be of a different character to
11 what we would expect in Europe; above dry forest, in terms
12 of humidity. But on definitions we would say for certain
13 all moist, wet and humid forest, including rain pre-montain
14 rainforest or lower-montain rainforest, and whatever, would
15 certainly come under this definition of rainforest because
16 of the species which - I think the important thing is what
17 are we concerned with here? We are concerned about damage
18 to biodiversity, soil erosion, we are concerned about
19 ecological damage and also threats to native people,
20 indigenous peoples.
21
22 But concentrating on the ecological damage, the point is,
23 is ecological damage being caused to central America and
24 Latin America forests and the question is, are they
25 biodiverse, these forests? And the answer is, they are.
26 We have heard that Sarado, Dr. Ratta in his expert
27 statement is extremely about -----
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Dr. Ratta in his statement, if I remember
30 correctly, said it is unfortunate that all the attention
31 paid to rainforest has made people not worry about the
32 Sarado forest. So he must be distinguishing between the
33 two, must he not? Just pause for a moment. (Pause). If
34 it is going to take more than a minute, I would rather it
35 waited until I have my five minute break. I do not want
36 the afternoon's hearing interrupted.
37
38 MS. STEEL: If Mr. Morris carries on-----
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not happy with that, it is a
41 distraction, I am afraid. You can have the five minute
42 break now, if you want. But we have to go on until about
43 four or something. Just hang on a minute. Can you hang
44 on? What do you want to do?
45
46 MR. MORRIS: I am sort of in mid flow. If it is better to get
47 this out of the way-----
48
49 MR JUSTICE BELL: Can you wait for five minutes or so and help
50 us out. Come in and sit down if you want to. Yes.
51
52 MR. MORRIS: Yes, the point I am making is maybe the word
53 'sting' I have been using is a term of art which I was not
54 aware of, but the concern in this fact sheet and by all the
55 experts is the damage being done, in terms of ecological
56 concern, to the biodiversity by the destruction of these
57 forests. So if it can be shown that the biodiversity of
58 the Sarado is being damaged by cattle ranching, whatever
59 the definition of rainforest or not, it is an important
60 part of the equation. In fact, it is impossible to
