Day 251 - 17 May 96 - Page 09

     
     1        doing reports.  Some came out in The Financial Times.  I
     2        published some in The Economist.  I published in specialist
     3        newsletters dealing with the environment so I was financing
     4        the research I was doing for the book by doing this
     5        journalism.
     6
     7   Q.   If you look further to the east, right to the very east
     8        (sic) of Brazil directly from Cuiaba there is an area
     9        called upon Pontes e Lacerda.  Can you see that; it is just
    10        on the BR174 which I think you have mentioned.
    11        A.  Yes.
    12
    13   Q.   Has everybody identified that?  It is just at the southern
    14        end of the bottle green markings on the west.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  On the west?
    17
    18   MR. MORRIS:  Sorry, did I say west?
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you see that?
         A.  Yes.
    22
    23   MR. MORRIS:  Pontes e Lacerda.  Have you been through that
    24        region around there?
    25        A.  Yes, I have travelled by bus on several occasions up to
    26        Rondonia, up to Acre.  I do not know this region quite as
    27        well as I know the south of Paraguay and the north of Mato
    28        Grosso, but I have certainly travelled on my way really to
    29        Acre.  I have stopped there, but I have not spent long
    30        periods in Pontes e Lacerda.
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You refer to Acre -- I see where Acre is,
    33        yes.
    34        A.  Sorry?
    35
    36   Q.   I wanted you to identify Acre for me, but I can see it on
    37        the map.
    38        A.  It is the furthermost, yes, state ---
    39
    40   Q.   The limey green one?
         A.  That is right, yes, the most westerly state of Brazil.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are you looking for it or do you know where
    44        it is?
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:  Yes, I know where Acre is.  (To the witness): But
    47        in terms of the area around Pontes e Lacerda, you any
    48        comments to make about the nature of the vegetation just in
    49        general?
    50        A.  Rondonia was, and it certainly was now because it has 
    51        been extremely devastated, it has been the region of the 
    52        Amazon which has had most devastation.  The government 
    53        brought in -- this area, Rondonia, was largely devastation
    54        through colonisation projects, as they say, which is
    55        projects bringing in settlers from the south of Brazil and
    56        from Parina(?) to settle the region; whereas Acre was
    57        devastated much more by cattle companies.
    58
    59        So Rondonia, when I first went there, which was in the
    60        early 70s, was covered by tropical forest, by which I mean