Day 056 - 28 Nov 94 - Page 08
1
2 Q. "Ecological sustainability should reflect a system of
3 forest management resulting in their being no danger
4 whatsoever to the environment." Is that part of the ASA
5 position?
6 A. It may be, but I do not know that that was stated
7 because it is a very loose statement in itself.
8
9 Q. Yes. What is your understanding of what the Advertising
10 Standards Authority position is on the use of the word
11 "sustainable"?
12 A. As far as I am aware, the subject has only been raised
13 with the ASA on two occasions; one over a statement made by
14 the Timber Trade Federation, "that every time you do not
15 specify timber you are helping destroy the planet", and
16 that was put before the ASA by somebody who referred it to
17 them, and the ASA supported that statement as being an
18 acceptable statement in the way it was expressed and no
19 changes have been made in the advertisement that said
20 that.
21
22 The other one relates to a Finnish organisation called Plus
23 Forest that put in an advertisement, the wording of which
24 could be subject to interpretation along the lines you have
25 stated but, in fact, the ASA did not require them to do
26 anything more than modify one phrase of that statement.
27
28 I do have some notes on that point which I took at the time
29 when I saw Mr. Hopkins had made reference to it. It may be
30 helpful if you ask further questions that I refer to them.
31
32 Q. Yes. I did not want to go down a great long road; I just
33 wondered if you had a -----
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is there an accepted definition of what
36 "sustainable" means? For instance, the World Health
37 Authority has a glossary of illnesses, so that if you use a
38 term anyone can look in the WHO glossary and see what it
39 means. Is there anything remotely equivalent to that in
40 forestry terms?
41 A. It has been emerging, my Lord, steadily over the years.
42 To begin with, "sustainability" was almost entirely defined
43 as "sustained yield". In other words, that the forest
44 should be able and capable and in the way it is used manage
45 to continue to supply the same volume of timber as it did
46 in the past or more. It has now become a much wider
47 definition along lines of the biodefinition that we heard
48 earlier from the Helsinki conference.
49
50 Combining the two has been very difficult, and one would
51 have to say that there is only one definition that has
52 emerged so far, and that was in the first meeting of the
53 United Nation Commission on Sustainable Development and it
54 did produce a phrase. I do not have that phrase
55 immediately in front of me at the present time.
56
57 Q. Could you find it, if need be?
58 A. I could during the course of time locate such a
59 phrase.
60
