Day 242 - 29 Apr 96 - Page 16

     
     1        particular, this is the top of the reliability range.
     2
     3   Q.   Right.  For the record, this is a map which has the various
     4        characterisations of natural vegetation for different areas
     5        of Costa Rica, and I note the Nicoya Peninsula is all
     6        characterised as tropical moist forest or wet forests.  You
     7        would accept that, would you?
     8        A.  Yes, for the period to which the map refers.
     9
    10   Q.   Right.
    11        A.  The 1960 essentially.
    12
    13   Q.   You have been to Guanacaste and it is characterised largely
    14        as dry forest.  What would that be in terms of what we
    15        would understand, say, in this country?
    16        A.  Well, it is not a desert.  It is not "dry" in the
    17        common sense of the word; it is simply less wet than
    18        rainforest.
    19
    20   Q.   What would it be equivalent to?
         A.  It would be equivalent to the amount of rainfall that
    22        you would find in the European deciduous forest for
    23        example.
    24
    25   Q.   Right.
    26        A.  It looks like a deciduous forest rather than a moist or
    27        wet forest.
    28
    29   Q.   Right.  Although it is quite difficult to see that around
    30        the area south of Quepos and inland from Quepos ----
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just pause there a moment.  You said tropical
    33        dry forest is simply less wet than rainforest.  Those were
    34        the terms you used.  We have tropical dry forest, tropical
    35        moist forest, tropical wet forest, among other matters, on
    36        the Tosi map, and in your supplementary statement of
    37        November 1993 you refer to humid forest as well.
    38
    39        I merely, at the moment, want to understand your
    40        terminology, what it means for you as you write those
         letters and give your evidence, but what does "tropical
    42        rainforest" include in your terminology?
    43        A.  In my terminology?
    44
    45   Q.   Anyone else's terminology just so I can understand?
    46        A.  The terminology is chaotic because different authors,
    47        different systems use different wording but in my
    48        understanding "tropical rainforest" is a general category.
    49
    50   Q.   Is a? 
    51        A.  A general category, a blanket category, which in Costa 
    52        Rica, in my view, would cover all forest other than those 
    53        defined as dry forests.  Within that category ----
    54
    55   Q.   Just pause a moment please?
    56        A.  Yes.
    57
    58   Q.   In that category you mean "rainforest"?
    59        A.  Yes.  Within that category.
    60