Day 251 - 17 May 96 - Page 10

     
     1        some areas of dense forest and some areas of less dense
     2        tropical forest and a few areas of savannah.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just pause, please.  When was that, in the
     5        early 70s?
     6        A.  In the early 70s.  I travelled there, well, I, in fact,
     7        went back, this trip to Acre, I had been travelling there
     8        since the early 1970s, but I did not stop for long periods
     9        in Rondonia.
    10
    11   MR. MORRIS:  As regards the immediate area around upon Pontes e
    12        Lacerda, and note there is an area of agricultural activity
    13        identified which is the dotted areas within that green
    14        swathe, at the southern end of that green swathe,
    15        apparently carved out of that area.  But that area, in that
    16        immediate area, around that area, the vegetation that you
    17        described just now, does that apply to that area around
    18        there?
    19        A.  Yes.  When I first went to Rondonia -- I was looking
    20        back in my diaries -- I remember it as a densely forested
         state.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Mr. Morris is asking you specifically though
    24        about the areas about Pontes e Lacerda.  He has a specific
    25        reason for that which need not trouble you, but that is why
    26        he asked you about Pontes e Lacerda specifically?
    27        A.  I can remember Pontes e Lacerda; I can remember it as a
    28        forested area.  I would not like to say absolutely 100 per
    29        cent forested.  As I recall, there were some areas of
    30        savannah there, but when I first went there, the vast
    31        majority was heavily forested area of what one could call
    32        tropical forest.
    33
    34   MR. MORRIS:  You say when you first went there, what was it like
    35        by the mid 1980s?
    36        A.  By the mid 1980s, the whole, the vast majority of the
    37        state of Rondonia had been devastated.
    38
    39   Q.   That would apply, would it, to the area around Pontes e
    40        Lacerda?
         A.  That would apply particularly to the area around, more
    42        to the south, in the state of Rondonia.
    43
    44   Q.   I think if we can just leave the map now for a while?  We
    45        may look at the other map with more towns on.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When you say "cattle companies", as you do in
    48        two places at least, I have noticed on the first page of
    49        your statement, what do you mean by "cattle companies"?
    50        A.  Could you actually point out? 
    51 
    52   Q.   Yes, in the second paragraph, the penultimate line, "... 
    53        the pace of destruction by the cattle companies", then you
    54        say Bordon was one of the most -- in the middle of the next
    55        paragraph, "... the advertising campaign to attract cattle
    56        companies"?
    57        A.  Yes, I am talking largely about companies, Brazilian
    58        companies, that have activities that may be in very
    59        different economic areas in the south of Brazil or in the
    60        most industrially developed area of Brazil around San Paulo