Day 239 - 23 Apr 96 - Page 12

     
     1        call pistaleiros, gunmen, who will clear off the peasants
     2        who were there before and the ranchers take over and
     3        consolidate their clearing, clearing away the forest in
     4        between them, and then the peasants get pushed further on
     5        to another frontier and the process starts all over again.
     6
     7   MR. MORRIS: "Some of the land that ranchers have seized belongs,
     8        according to Brazilian law, to the indigenous inhabitants
     9        of the forest, the Indians.  In many Indian reserves,
    10        ranchers have taken over large tracts of Land.  This has
    11        many deleterious effects: Many Indian communities depend
    12        upon the plants and animals of the forest for subsistence,
    13        and are deprived of their livelihoods when the trees are
    14        cut.  Considerable number of Amazon Indians die each year
    15        of diseases introduced by the outsiders, some of whom are
    16        ranchers invading their lands.  Some have been shot by
    17        ranchers' employees.
    18
    19        Nearly all the ranchland in Brazil previously belonged
    20        either to Indians of to peasants, who were displaced either
         by force or by economic change designed to favour large
    22        landowners.  Since colonization, ranch owners have been a
    23        vociferous and powerful lobby in Brazil, and government
    24        policy has often favoured them above other citizens.
    25        Ranches in Brazil employ few people, so the net effect of
    26        cattle ranching on Brazilian livelihoods appears to be
    27        negative.
    28
    29        H. Soil:  Most of the Amazon's soils are unsuitable for
    30        cattle ranching.  The nutrients contained in the forest's
    31        vegetation leach away when it is burnt.  In their absence
    32        the phosphate in the soil is largely unavailable to plant
    33        life as it remains bound to molecules of iron and
    34        aluminium.  This is the main reason for the failure of
    35        unimproved ranches after a few years."
    36
    37        That is statement you signed.  Is that your signature?
    38        A.   That is correct, yes.
    39
    40   Q.   On the 21st July 1993 and do you stand by what has been
         read out?
    42        A.   I stand by that.
    43
    44   Q.   If we move to your first addendum.  It is not actually
    45        dated but it has a fax date above it dated 26th July, 1993
    46        and I will read it out.
    47
    48        "The statement by David Rose" -- and that is the statement
    49        elsewhere where in the bundles --"shows that McDonald's has
    50        used beef produced on rainforest land cleared as recently 
    51        as ten years ago (up to 1988) and 25 years ago 
    52        (1989-1993).  This practice has the following environmental 
    53        and social impacts:
    54
    55        1.  Maintaining ex-rainforest land as cattle pasture would
    56        prevent the regrowth of forest on that land.  This will
    57        have implications for biodiversity, the sequestering of
    58        carbon and hydrological cycles."
    59        A.  This question of carbon needs explanation because this
    60        may be of relevance and, to my mind, it is a very important