Day 056 - 28 Nov 94 - Page 17

     
     1        this country since 1985 we have had a very clear policy
     2        which covers biodiversity as well as it covers the
     3        sustainability in other respects.  In other countries you
     4        will find regional laws that have applied such rules, but
     5        they have been emerging, and they have been coming together
     6        now in international conferences and international
     7        statements of policies which are being adopted by country,
     8        nation by nation.
     9
    10   Q.   If I do not seem to be listening; it is just because
    11        I am thinking of the next question.  It is not that I am
    12        not taking any notice.
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No discourtesy; he is working ahead.
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:  No discourtesy.  It saves time if I think of the
    17        next question before you finish.  When you say in your next
    18        paragraph:  "A natural, or virgin, unmanaged forest will
    19        recover from the selective felling of mature trees" with
    20        the provisos that you put.  Can you explain what you mean
         by "selective felling"?
    22        A.  Well, there are various forms of felling of trees and
    23        extraction of timber.  As you will know, there is the
    24        procedure of clear cutting an area; there is the procedure
    25        of thinning a forest which already exists and there is the
    26        procedure of taking out selectively individual trees so any
    27        form of selection, including thinning, is capable of
    28        improving the quality of the forest both in terms of
    29        economics and in biodiversity.
    30
    31   Q.   That relates to unmanaged forest, does it, according to
    32        your statement?
    33        A.  Yes.  An unmanaged forest meaning one in which nobody
    34        has really cared about literally its management in terms of
    35        clearing away things that have grown and are not part of
    36        the normal, natural feature of that forest.  If individual
    37        trees are removed, it has capability of recovery, yes.
    38
    39   Q.   In the countries which you have identified -- actually, one
    40        thing that struck me, your list of countries, you have said
         elsewhere:  "Imports into Northern Europe and Scandinavia
    42        are prodominantly", sorry, "into northern -- into the ECC
    43        are predominantly from Scandinavia, the former USSR and
    44        Canada"; is that correct?
    45        A.  That is correct.
    46
    47   Q.   So, some on that list you have, presumably, that is the
    48        areas in which supplies are actually bought within; is that
    49        correct?  What I am saying is that imported wood would go
    50        into the mills in those countries; is that correct? 
    51        A.  I am not entirely sure I understand actually the 
    52        question, because the productive forest is their own 
    53        resource but those countries will still be importers of
    54        some forest products.
    55
    56   Q.   Right, so what I am saying is that if suppliers buy from
    57        mills based in those countries that you have identified,
    58        some of the material they buy will have been imported as
    59        well from wherever?
    60        A.  It is possible that a mill purchases a proportion of