Day 286 - 24 Oct 96 - Page 10

     
     1        true Amazon, she says, in what no one would doubt, was
     2        rainforest, you do get such open spaces also.
     3
     4   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, but she witnessed the destruction of forest.
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I am not gainsaying your point.  I am
     7        explaining how I saw it.  That is her evidence in your
     8        favour on this topic.
     9
    10   MR. MORRIS:   And she also explained how this band of forest
    11        extended obviously beyond the border in Gioias and at one
    12        time it was virtually all the way up to Cuiaba.  And she
    13        had seen it with her own eyes, just as Professor Hecht had
    14        been in the area around Nova Xavantina, I recall, part of
    15        that lush green belt of Amazonian rainforest.
    16
    17        And if I can just say that George Monbiot - this is before
    18        we had the information about Gioias - said on page 20 of
    19        his testimony, day 239, that the Amazon basin extended to
    20        Gioias, and that is at line 31 of that page.  And then
         there was a discussion about whether we are concerned with
    22        the Amazon basin or concerned with the vegetation in it or
    23        whatever.
    24
    25        So what I am saying is anything that the witnesses said
    26        about the area around Nova Xavantina, without the benefit
    27        of the information that we later received about Gioias,
    28        what they said about the area around Nova Xavantina is
    29        likely to -- well, will apply to the areas in Gioias that
    30        we were talking about, that Sue Branford was talking
    31        about.
    32
    33        And we also heard about the -- well, that is another matter
    34         -- the indigenous people living in those areas.  Sue
    35        Branford talks about one particular group, tribe, that she
    36        witnessed being evicted from their lands.  I have not got
    37        that reference in front of me.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not do that, because one of the things I
    40        have not yet done, but I will do, is not only read through
         carefully the statements of witnesses like Professor Hecht
    42        and Miss Branford which were adopted -- in the case of
    43        Professor Hecht it was her evidence, but in the case of
    44        Miss Branford -- I will re-read, I have not done it yet,
    45        but I will re-read her statement, or the statements which
    46        she adopted as her evidence, and the transcript of her
    47        evidence, because whatever I make of it I realise its
    48        potential importance to your case.
    49
    50   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, actually she did say, on page 23 of her 
    51        evidence, Sue Branford -- no, sorry, no. 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   What I am urging you to do is, I have in
    54        mind the potential for importance to your case of her
    55        evidence, if I accept it, balance it against everything
    56        else.  I am not going to give any indication whose evidence
    57        I prefer until I have got it all straight in my mind.
    58
    59   MR. MORRIS:   Right.  I think, as regards the whole picture,
    60        that the evidence of Mr. Monbiot was particularly