Day 242 - 29 Apr 96 - Page 09

     
     1        as late as 1983."
     2
     3        Do you stand by that statement?
     4        A.  I do.
     5
     6   Q.   I want to note on that map, for example -- I will come to
     7        that in a minute -- sorry, the map that was behind that
     8        article, two pages -- shows the Peninsula de Nicoya was
     9        deforested, it seems, between 1940 and 1961?
    10        A.  That is correct.
    11
    12   Q.   That, as we know, is one of the regions that McDonald's
    13        take beef from.  If we move on, there are just a few
    14        further questions.  Actually, while we have got that last
    15        document open, behind that map there is a page 117 which I
    16        believe is not what you wrote yourself, is it, but you have
    17        disclosed it for a specific reason; is that correct?
    18        A.  That is correct.
    19
    20   Q.   I noticed that the last sentence of the first incomplete
         paragraph, reads:
    22
    23        "Although only eight per cent of Costa Rica's lands are
    24        apt for cattle grazing, pasture currently covers 44 per
    25        cent of the national territory"."
    26
    27        Is that a significant statement, so far as you are
    28        concerned?
    29        A.  I share that view.
    30
    31   Q.   It says various other figures which I will not go into.
    32        While we have got that file open, the documents, the Area
    33        Handbook for Costa Rica served on McDonald's last week, if
    34        I just go to another part of that document which is page
    35        227?
    36        A.  Yes.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Which one?  The one that Mr. Rampton handed
    39        in?
    40
    MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  The Area Handbook for Costa Rica.
    42        (To the witness):  Just note on page 227, to see if you
    43        have any comment, it says in the first full paragraph, the
    44        latest sentence indicates there were nearly 65,000 farms in
    45        the country in 1963.  Then it says in the second to last
    46        sentence:
    47
    48        "Few of them, 1.5 per cent of the number of farms are
    49        larger than 850 acres, yet they occupy 42 per cent of the
    50        total farm area". 
    51 
    52        Do you have any comment about land ---- 
    53        A.  Yes.
    54
    55   Q.   -- use and equitability?
    56        A.  These figures indicate a relatively high degree of
    57        skewness in land distribution.  There is a kind of a
    58        theory, which is called in Central American studies "Costa
    59        Rican Exceptionalism", which argues that Costa Rica is
    60        unique in Central America as being a democratic.  They have