Day 286 - 24 Oct 96 - Page 06

     
     1        distinguishing, because he distinguishes.  It is itself a
     2        complex mix of forest and other vegetation types in dynamic
     3        inter-relationship and is in itself an area of very
     4        important bio-diversity which, as he says, is being
     5        destroyed by the cattle ranching industry, amongst others.
     6        They are a major, if not the major, culprit.
     7
     8        So in terms of environmental damage, the rise and growth of
     9        cattle ranching in Brazil is inevitably causing major
    10        environmental damage in regions which have been identified
    11        as of ecological importance by our expert witnesses.  And
    12        McDonald's have not called any expert witnesses at all to
    13        give any opinion on Brazil.
    14
    15        Mr. Cesca said he was not an expert, and not only is he not
    16        an expert but all our experts that were asked about the
    17        matter seemed extremely confused about the designation of
    18        rainforest by Mr. Cesca, the straight line across
    19        parallels, one of the major roads that was built through
    20        the Amazon, which served to underline his lack of
         experience.
    22
    23        If I can just say that it was also quite obvious that
    24        Mr. Cesca was not an expert on land disputes and effects on
    25        indigenous people.  He had not even heard of any conflicts
    26        over indigenous peoples in the specific relevant areas that
    27        we are talking about; that is, Gioias and Mato Grosso do
    28        Sol.  We are obviously concerned about other areas and, in
    29        fact, we are concerned with Mato Grosso in general.
    30        Obviously, the whole situation is very complex because of
    31        the displacement of people, which we heard from our
    32        witnesses.  All parts of the map are relevant, but offer
    33        some idea of areas that have been specifically identified
    34        and studied because of the clear direct relationship of
    35        McDonald's suppliers.
    36
    37        Now, in the 1995 annual report, McDonald's annual report,
    38        there was a - I am not even sure.... (Pause)
    39
    40   MR. RAMPTON:   My Lord, the 1995 annual review or report, if by
         that Mr. Morris means the Corporation's annual report, it
    42        is not in the pink volume 3.  In fact, copies were brought
    43        to court.  I think Mr. Preston might have made some
    44        reference to it in the second batch of evidence.  It was a
    45        coloured magazine.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have this, which is the - oh, no, that is
    48        health and safety.  I know I have got photographs of bits
    49        here and there.
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:   It is not ---- 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I particularly have the ones where I --
    54        because I was interested in numbers of restaurants.
    55
    56   MR. RAMPTON:   Quite, yes.
    57
    58   MR. MORRIS:   That is exactly what I was going to say, that it
    59        says in Brazil there are 263 restaurants.
    60