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12 May 

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SUMMARY


34th Session of the International Tropical Timber Council and Associated Sessions of the Committees 
12 - 17 May 2003 Panama City, Panama 
        

Highlights for

Wednesday, 14 May 2003


Delegates to ITTC-34 convened in Council and Committee sessions. The Council addressed: measures to improve project formulation and appraisal; preparations for a successor agreement to the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA, 1994); and forest law enforcement. The Committee on Reforestation and Forest Management (CRF) addressed policy work.  The Committee on Finance and Administration (CFA) considered draft decisions on: the management of the administrative budget; project implementation management; and the biennial work programme and administrative budget. The Committees on Economic Information and Market Intelligence (CEM) and on Forest Industry (CFI) convened jointly to consider policy work and revised project and pre-project proposals. Above photo L-R: Jan McAlpine, ITTC Vice-Chair, Bin Che Yeom Freezailah, ITTC Chair, Manoel Sobral Filho, ITTO Executive Director

Council Session:




Carlos Chirinos, Peruvian Environmental Law Society, presented a case study on the development and implementation of guidelines for the control of illegal logging with a view to SFM in Peru. He drew attention to the root causes of illegal logging, including poverty and unemployment.




SWITZERLAND said that ITTO should support innovative proposals that are not just valuable to one member country, and that contribute in a concrete way to Objective 2000.





GHANA suggested that workshops should focus on training of trainers to build local capacity at a low cost, and called for the involvement of technical instutions and universities.






AUSTRALIA called for broader consultation involving consultants, mentors, and other ITTO countries, and expressed the need for the Secretariat to play a stronger role regarding the development of propject proposals and administrative analyses.





MALAYSIA lamented that despite measures to combat illegal logging, including its bans on log imports from Indonesia and on square logs, illegal logs still enter the country under false declarations of origin.


Committee on Finance and Administration





Regarding the CFA draft decision on management of the administrative budget, GERMANY requested clarification on the number of consultants that could be hired annually with the interest earned in the Administrative Account.

Committee on Economic Information and Market Intelligence (CEM) and Committee on Forest Industry (CFI) 



Lamon Rutten (Consultant) said the tropical plywood industry is 
changing rapidly, losing its market share compared to alternative plywood types. He outlined the major problems in this industry, including a lack of clear pricing mechanisms and of reliable information about market trends.



Richard Murphy, Imperial College, presented a review of current work on life-cycle assessments (LCA) for tropical timber products. He highlighted that the eco-profile for tropical timber compares favorably with synthetic materials, although drawbacks include long transportation distances and high harvesting energy.
Committee on Reforestation and Forest Management (CRF)




Carmenza Robledo, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Testing and Research (EMPA)/Intercooperation, outlined the role of forests in the UNFCCC and explained how the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism could be relevant to ITTO project work.

The SECRETARIAT presented a proposal for a study to examine private sector involvement in industrial forest plantations in the tropics. She said that despite comparative advantages, progress in developing commercial plantations has been slow and that the study could evaluate factors inhibiting plantation investment.
Side Events:
THE LINKAGES BETWEEN TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
BOOK LAUNCH: "Changing Landscapes – The Development of the International Tropical Timber Organization and its influence on Tropical Forest Management", by Duncan Poore. 

ENB Snapshots: 

Links

 ENB Summary of ITTC-33 in PDF (English)

ITTO website, with documents for the meeting (includes provisional agendas),
and information about the ITTO.

Linkages forests, desertification and land issues page, including a brief introduction
to global forest policy.

 UNFF Website

 FAO Website 

Recent SD coverage on Forest:

4th Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE)

 UNFF Country Led Initiative

 International Conference on Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management (CICI)

 Trade and Sustainable Forest Management 

 

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