ENB @ ITTA-3; 27 June - 1 July 2005; Geneva, Switzerland


	Third Part of the United Nations Conference for the Negotiation of a Successor Agreement to the International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994
		27 June – 1 July 2005 \| Geneva, Switzerland

Daily Web Coverage & Daily Reports (in English, French & Spanish):

Highlights from Monday, 27 June 2005

Over 150 delegates gathered at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on the opening day of the UN Conference on the Negotiation of a Successor Agreement to the International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994 (ITTA, 1994), Third Part. In the morning, delegates met in a brief plenary session before convening in two working groups on the new Agreement’s scope and financial arrangement. Working Group I (WGI) considered the Preamble and Chapter I (Objectives), and Working Group II (WGII) addressed Chapter VII (Operational Activities), Chapter IX (Statistics, Studies, and Information) and Chapter X (Miscellaneous). In the afternoon, a Joint Working Group was held, in which delegates debated cross-cutting issues, including funding for key policy work and distribution of votes. Setting the tone for the negotiations, the President of the UN Conference emphasized that political will and balance would be needed in order to conclude this week’s negotiations successfully.



	Amb. Carlos Antonio da Rocha Paranhos, President of the UN Conference, opened the session, identifying unresolved issues such as the scope of the agreement, the distribution of votes and the shift of funding for key policy work from voluntary to assessed accounts. Above photo (from left to right): Manoel Sobral Filho, ITTO Executive Director, Ambassador Carlos Antonio da Rocha Paranhos (Brazil), and Lisanne Losier, UNCTAD



	President Carlos Antonio da Rocha Paranhos		Alexei Mojarov, UNCTAD

Working Group I

WG I made progress on the Preamble and Objectives section for the new Agreement



	Panel from the morning session. From left to right: WGI Vice-Chair Jan McAlpine, US, WGI Chair Alhassan Attah, Ghana, and Catherine Sibut-Pinote, UNCTAD



Chair Alhassan Attah, presented the final working paper from ITTA	WG I Vice-Chair Jan McAlpine, US	Catherine Sibut-Pinote, UNCTAD



Noting the need to be in line with other international agreements, Inga Magistad, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, proposed to maintain reference to indigenous “peoples”	Seuram Jhilmit, Trinidad and Tobago noted that delegates should only discuss already bracketed text	Marta Ligia Pérez Garzon, Colombia, suggested deleting reference to timber and timber products



	Ricardo Ulate Cachón, Costa Rica		Bipin Behari, Ministry of Enviornment and Forests of India, suggested bracketing reference to “ecological services”



	David Brooks and Stephanie Caswell (US)		Lisanne Losier, UNCTAD and Catherine Sibut-Pinote, UNCTAD respond a question from Carlos Moreno Mericaechevarria, Advisor, Legal Services

Working Group II

WG II addressed articles on, inter alia: policy work of the organization; committees and subsidiary bodies; statistics, studies and information; annual report and review; and differential and remedial measures and special measures



	Chairman Jürgen Blaser, reviewed outstanding issues to be addressed by WG II		Lisanne Losier, UNCTAD, clarified textual changes on finance in the working document



	Luis J. Macchiavello, Ambassador of Peru, strongly objected to “punishing” countries who could not provide required statistical information		David Brooks, US, proposed deleting the paragraph describing key policy work



	The EC favored reference to a special vote in an article on committees and subsidiary bodies		Participants at Working Group II

Afternoon Session

Delegates met in a Joint Working Group to discuss cross-cutting issues contained in the final working paper from the second part of the Conference. After realizing that delegates were deadlocked on a number of issues, particularly those of finance, Chair Blaser suggested that delegates convene in two working groups during Tuesday's session.



	Panel from the afternoon session. From left to right: WG I Chair Alhassan N. Attah, Ghana, WG II Chair Jürgen Blaser, Lisanne Losier, UNCTAD, Catherine Sibut-Pinote, UNCTAD, and Alexei Mojarov, UNCTAD



WG I Chair Alhassan N. Attah, Ghana, presented the final working paper from ITTA, Second Part	Frederik Vossenaar, Netherlands, reported on the field visit to an ITTO project in Brazzaville, Congo	WG II Chair Jürgen Blaser asked members to provide an overview of the major obstacles and suggested discussing Chapter 7 (Finance)



Enzo Barattini, European Commission, highlighted the hard work ahead for WGI, and requested more support from the Secretariat during negotiations on definitions	Koichi Ito, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, noted similarities and overlaps among proposals and requested a matrix from the Secretariat	Drawing attention to language describing the activities of the propposed key policy work account, Luiz Cesar Gasser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, proposed to further define the elements of this account



Daniel Birchmeier, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Switzerland, pointed out that many questions were raised when producer members offered their alternative text in February and requested discussion of it	Inga Magistad, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, called for separate earmarked and unearmarked voluntary funding streams and for applying assessed contributions to operating costs	David Brooks, US, outlined a 60/40 proposal for funding the Adminstrative Account by consumers and producers, respectively



Li Quiang, Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, emphasized the interdependence among the structure of the Organization, the content of its actions, and finance	B. Che Yeom Freezailah, Malaysian Timber Certification Council, underscored a number of members would prefer ITTA to continue to be a commodity agreement	Sheam Satkuru-Granzella, Malaysia, favored a “Work Programme Sub-Account” rather than a “Key Policy Work Account”



	Delegates from Latin America holding discussions at the conclusion of the afternoon session

	Relevant Links

ITTO website, with provisional program, documents for the meeting, and information about the ITTO.
UNCTAD.
UNFF Website.
ENB summary from ITTC-37: (HTML, PDF, TEXT).
ENB summary from ITTC-36: (English: HTML, PDF, TEXT) (French: HTML, PDF, TEXT).
ENB summary from ITTC-35: (English: HTML, PDF, TEXT) (French: HTML, PDF, TEXT) (Spanish: HTML, PDF, TEXT).
ENB summary from ITTC-34: (English: HTML, PDF, TEXT) (French: HTML, PDF, TEXT) (Spanish: HTML, PDF, TEXT).
ENB summary from ITTC-33: (English: HTML, PDF, TEXT).
ENB summary from ITTA, 1994 renegotiation: (English: HTML, PDF, TEXT) (French: HTML, PDF, TEXT).
ENB summary from ITTA, 1994 (second part): (English: HTML, PDF, TEXT) (French: HTML, PDF, TEXT).
ENB summary from UNFF-5: (HTML, PDF, TEXT).
YMB summary from the Europe and North Asia Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Conference: (HTML, PDF, TEXT).
SD summary from the United Nations Forum on Forests Country-Led Initiative on Lessons Learned in Monitoring, Assessment and Reporting on Implementation of IPF/IFF Proposals for Action: (HTML, PDF, TEXT).
SD summary from the International Conference on Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management (CICI): (HTML, PDF, TEXT).
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