ITTC-42 Highlights: Tuesday, 8 May 2007

On Tuesday, May 8, 2007, the Forty-Second Session of the International Tropical Timber Council continued in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. In the morning, delegates met in plenary to hear presentations by candidates for Executive Director of the ITTO as well as the Report on forest law enforcement and governance (FLEG) in PNG, which presented the outcome of a multi-stakeholder workshop on FLEG held in Port Moresby in 2006. It was explained that the objective of the workshop was to gain an understanding of the cause and extent of illegal logging, and that outcomes of the workshop included a greater understanding of how illegal logging is defined and how legality can be demonstrated. Recommendations included that government should further engage with NGOs in increasing awareness of forest laws.

In the afternoon, delegates met in sessions of the Committees on Economic Information and Market Intelligence, Forest Industry (CEM-CFI), and Reforestation and Forest Management (CRF). In the CRF, participants discussed ex-post evaluation, projects and pre-project proposals, policy work and other business. In the CEM-CFI, participants discussed projects and pre-project proposals as well as policy work. This was followed by concurrent sessions of the Committee on Finance and Administration (CFA) where participants discussed: the administration budget for 2007; resources of the special account and the Bali Partnership Fund; auditor's report for the financial year 2006; appointment of an auditor; Liberia debt relief and the Joint Technical Committee, where consultants presented five ex-post evaluations of completed projects.