Day 056 - 28 Nov 94 - Page 34
1 because they will be cleared, the trees that blown down
2 will be cleared, will they not? A managed forest ---
3 A. Yes.
4
5 Q. -- is ecologically less diverse than a natural forest in
6 any event, broadly speaking?
7 A. A managed forest will have a different biodiversity
8 than an unmanaged forest which is an old growth forest, the
9 answer must be "yes".
10
11 Q. So, such diversity as there is in plantation forests, it
12 will be a different biodiversity, whether it is more or
13 less is another question, but it will be a different
14 biodiversity than a natural forest, a different species of
15 plants?
16 A. Yes.
17
18 Q. Different fungi, different insects?
19 A. Of course, and the effect, equally, when the wind blows
20 down the natural forest or the fire rages through it or the
21 pests of one kind or another become dominant, it will
22 change the ecology of the natural forest as well.
23
24 Q. If we just look at your page 3, Canada point (iv), it
25 says: "From 1986/1989 only 1.2 per cent of Canada's ...
26 productive timberland was harvested". If that pattern
27 continued for a reasonable lifetime, say, 100 years, yes,
28 I calculate that that would be 40 per cent of productive
29 timberland harvested in what you might call a generation.
30 Would you not say that was a large amount harvested; 40 per
31 cent of Canada's productive timberland in a generation?
32 A. That is assuming that nothing is regenerating and
33 nothing has been planted and that the existing trees are
34 not growing.
35
36 Q. But even if they are replaced, it is still a large
37 percentage, is it not?
38 A. I think more of interest is the fact that the forest
39 stock, according to the statement that I have made here, is
40 a net increase of 554 million metre cubed, so that the
41 volume of timber is increasing, not decreasing.
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you going to go through the whole of this
44 statement, challenging facts and figures which are in it?
45 Let me explain why I have asked that.
46
47 MR. MORRIS: I have questions here.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Probably the first question I will have to
50 ask myself in this area is how much McDonald's are shown to
51 be responsible for. The leaflet says, or the leaflet might
52 be interpreted as saying, 800 square miles of forest every
53 year. The calculation which Mr. Kouchoukos did suggests
54 less than 10 square miles in the USA. The calculation
55 which Mr. Mallinson does in his statement suggests less
56 than a square mile for McDonald's UK requirements. When
57 I have some idea of what the true figures are, no doubt,
58 within some latitude (because I do not suppose anyone can
59 be anything like exact) I will have to ask myself the
60 extent to which felling those kinds of areas damages the
