Daily Web Coverage (click a day
below)
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International Tropical Timber Council: Thirty-Fifth
Session
| Yokohama, Japan
| 3 - 8 November
2003 |
Highlights from
Friday, 7 November
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On Friday, delegates to ITTC-35 convened in council and committee
sessions and in an open-ended drafting group to continue negotiating
the Council's decisions. In the morning, the Committees on
Reforestation and Forest Management (CRF), Economic Information
and Market Intelligence (CEM), Forest Industry (CFI) and Finance
and Administration (CFA) met to approve their final reports
to the Council. In the afternoon, the Council considered:
a study on internationally traded and potentially tradable
environmental services provided by tropical forests; the report
of the credentials committee; the promotion of sustainable
forest management (SFM) in the Congo Basin; and a report on
experiences of implementation of ITTA, 1994. Also in the afternoon,
the open-ended drafting group negotiated the Draft Biennial
Work Programme for 2004-2005.
Photo: Patricia
Hanashiro, Secretariat, Manoel
Sobral Filho, ITTO Executive Director, ITTC-35
Chair Bin Che Freezailah, and Vice-Chair Jan McAlpine
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Manoel
Sobral
Filho, ITTO Executive Director, ITTC-35
Chair Bin Che Freezailah, Malaysia, and Vice-Chair Jan McAlpine,
US
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Cleto
Ndikumagenge, Consultant, outlined
work on the review and assessment of experiences in forest management
partnerships undertaken in Central Africa, describing: background
information on the forestry sector; an assessment of forestry
management; experiences with forest management partnerships
with, inter alia, the ITTO, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, World
Conservation Society, and the French Development Agency; and
proposals for partnership models for the enhancement of forest
management. He noted problems faced by the partnerships in terms
of delays in the release of funds by governments, lack of personnel
with adequate technical expertise, and inadequate monitoring
and evaluation of field activities. Ndikumagenge recommended,
inter alia, the development of a monitoring and evaluation mechanism,
creation of a coordination mechanism for partnerships, the improvement
of management tools, consolidation of the roles of private sector
and civil society, and the entrenchment of forest concession
management in activities regarding the establishment of transboundary
protected areas.
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Andy
White, Forest Trends, presented
on the current status and future potential of markets for ecosystem
services (ES) of tropical forests (ITTC(XXXV)/6). Noting that
different types of ES include watershed protection, biodiversity
protection and carbon sequestration, he said the main buyers
of these are local private investors. He elaborated on the main
markets and payment schemes, which are: public payments to private
forest owners to maintain or enhance ES; open trading under
a regulatory cap; self-organized private deals; and eco-labeling
of forest farm products.
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Vice-Chair
Jan McAlpine, US, Manoel
Sobral
Filho, ITTO Executive Director, and
ITTC-35 Chair Bin Che Freezailah, Malaysia:
The
Chair introduced the agenda item on the ITTO Fellowship Programme,
and the Secretariat presented an overview on the implementation
of the ITTO Fellowship Programme (XXXV)/19. The Chair of the
Selection Panel, Vice-Chair Jan McAlpine, presented the Committee's
report and said countries need to do a better job advertising
the fellowship programme, and encouraged more donor countries
to provide financial resources for the programme. The Chair
noted that 26 of 90 applicants received awards, which included
awardees from Nepal, Brazil, PNG, and Indonesia. She encouraged
more applications related to CEM and CFI activities, and also
described the Committee's decision to update and improve selection
criteria for the fellowship programme.
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Side
event: Innovative Wood Drying: Technology to Improve Wood Quality
by UNIDO Tokyo
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| Committee on Economic
Information and Market Intelligence and Committee on Forest
Industry |
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The
draft report of the thirty-third session of the CEM/CFI (CEM-CFI
XXXIII/7) was reviewed for approval by the CEM/CFI.
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| Committee
on Reforestation and Forest Management |
Co-Chairs
A.S.K. Boachie-Dapaah and Henri Félix Maître, and Eva Mülller,
Secretariat
The CRF
considered its draft report of the session (CRF(XXXIII)/9)
and approved it with minor amendments. Chair Henri-Félix Maître
confirmed that the dates and venues of the next two sessions
of the CRF will coincide with ITTC-36 and ITTC-37, and said
that decisions on the date and venue of the thirty-sixth session
of the CRF is still pending.
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| Informal drafting group: The
drafting group resumed discussion of the ITTO Biennial Work Programme
for 2004-2005. They considered a list of proposed activities to
be implemented by the ITTO Executive Director, and adopted a paragraph
requesting the technical committees to develop terms of reference
(ToR) for some of the activities. Participants debated whether
proposed activities should be listed in order of priority, and
decided that such prioritization is not essential. |
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Patricia
Hanashiro, Secretariat, Manoel
Sobral Filho, ITTO Executive Director, ITTC-35
Chair Bin Che Freezailah, and Vice-Chair Jan McAlpine
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drafting group concluded its work with applause and with chocolate |
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Delegates in the corridors before the convening of the morning
session
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