Day 056 - 28 Nov 94 - Page 61
1 just as appropriate as a calculation based on both, would
2 it not, because the clearfelling would not apply anyway?
3 What I am saying is the acreage or square mileage or
4 whatever of forest that would be needed to supply X amount
5 of tonnes of thinned wood would be an important
6 calculation ----
7 A. Yes.
8
9 Q. --- in itself?
10 A. If one were to say that there is no mature forest in a
11 given area supplying a mill, then the requirement would be
12 thinnings and a larger area of forest would be needed to
13 give you that total tonnage. What we are giving here is an
14 example which is actually realistic because this what the
15 Forest Enterprise, our state owned forest, is supplying to
16 Iggesund and a lot of that forest was planted prewar, so
17 that they do have a substantial resource from which to
18 supply.
19
20 Now that is what makes it reasonably comparable to other
21 areas in Europe where they would also have prewar
22 plantation. Plantation is an historic forestry management
23 programme, and it has been going on in most countries for
24 well over 100 years.
25
26 Q. Say in England a lot of the production would be based on
27 post-Second World War plantations, presumably mainly
28 coniferous plantations?
29 A. Yes, except you can take areas which are not too far
30 away from Workington, for example, like the Kilder forest
31 which has a longer history than a postwar history.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you are suggesting that McDonald's
34 actually use packaging which has come from pulp which has
35 come exclusively, or almost exclusively, from thinnings,
36 I think you ought to put it because the question you asked
37 follows logically; whether it is based on any reality is
38 important.
39
40 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I would just ask the question that it would be
41 reasonable to assume that some mills supplying McDonald's,
42 or supplying McDonald's suppliers, are using prodominantly
43 thinned wood, wood from thinnings?
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What do you say about that?
46 A. One would need actually to do a check of individual
47 mills to see how that is true, because what you have to
48 remember is that when a forest is actually felled, and
49 I mean clearfelled, the top end of the trees that are
50 felled will also go to pulp direct, so that in effect what
51 goes to the sawmill are those trees of sufficient diameter
52 to be worth taking to a sawmill. So that practically in no
53 case would it be reasonable to the say that everything came
54 from forest thinnings or that everything came from
55 clearfelled.
56
57 MR. MORRIS: But for mills that are based in areas where there
58 is a great amount of new plantations, they would be getting
59 quite a substantial amount of their pulp from thinnings
60 which would be completely unsuitable for sawmills?
