Day 239 - 23 Apr 96 - Page 18
1 great migrations.
2
3 In the particular case of Mato Grosso do Sul it is a very
4 tragic story indeed. While a lot of the Guarani have left,
5 others have concentrated into very tiny reserves, all that
6 remains of the land that they can now claim as theirs
7 because the rest has been taken, and it has an
8 exceptionally high suicide rate. It could almost be mass
9 suicide because of the numbers of genuinely young Guarani
10 men who hang themselves from trees. It is a very upsetting
11 and unpleasant business.
12
13 Q. Do you stand by that statement of the 12th April 1996?
14 A. Yes.
15
16 Q. If you can get the map, your map?
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Would you pause a moment, please?
19
20 MR. MORRIS: We start off with McDonald's have said they received
21 supplies to a slaughter plant at Cuiba from as far west as
22 Pontas e Lacerda and directly west of Cuiba before you get
23 to the border?
24 A. I see it, yes.
25
26 Q. As far north as Sinop directly north of Cuiba, along that
27 route?
28 A. Yes.
29
30 Q. And as far east, directly east, as Nova Xavantina. It is
31 just slightly northeast. Can you see those 3 places?
32 A. Yes, I have them all.
33
34 Q. And you have commented on that in your statement. Can you
35 explain the vegetation types in those areas, those 3 areas?
36 A. Maybe we could start with Sinop.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes?
39 A. And the northern most part. You will see that there
40 is quite a range of vegetation types on the map within a
41 small radius of Sinop. Now, perhaps what I should say to
42 start off with is that even though this map is the most
43 detailed and complex that I have come across, it in no way
44 represents a total picture. The forest areas of Brazil are
45 fantastically complex; it is hard to convey the
46 complexity. You can move really in the course of a short
47 walk from one bio type to another, one sort of micro
48 eco-system into another. I mentioned earlier on in the
49 middle of the Amazon how you can find these areas of
50 succulence and cactus-like vegetation. Well, that is
51 certainly also the case in the cerrado.
52
53 If we look at the bluish-grey area immediately around the
54 Sinop, which is actually down as "Contados" or "Atividades
55 Agricolas", which are obviously places which have been
56 altered by the human presence in one way or another, as far
57 as one can make out from this map, we have a place there
58 which is now going to be largely ranchland and soya farms
59 but would have been this fantastic mixture going all the
60 way from a very low scrubby shrubland and mixed grass land
