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Council
Session:
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In
the morning, delegates discussed items in the revised draft biennial
work programme for 2006-2007. Delegates required clarification on, inter
alia: utilization of results from criteria and indicators national
training workshops; activities associated with ITTO participation in
the Collaborative Partnership on Forests; ITTO’s work on illegal
logging; evaluation of the Yokohama Action Plan for 2002-2006; and
formulation of a new ITTO Action Plan.
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Above photo L-R: Dais during the
morning Council Session with Alaistar Sarre (ITTO), Paul
Vantomme (ITTO), Emmanuel Ze Meka (ITTO), ITTO Executive
Director Manoel Sobral Filho, ITTC
Chair Alhassan Attah (Ghana), ITTC Vice-Chair Koichi
Ito (Japan), Amha Bin Buang (ITTO) and Edmond Collins Ahadome
(ITTO)
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Chair
Attah opened discussion of the draft biennial work
programme for 2006-7 and asked delegates to adopt the activities
in the list one by one.
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The
US suggested adding language to the activity on enhancing
members’ capacity to implement CITES appendices, to extend
work on mahogany and ramin and to cooperate with the private
sector and civil society.
Above
photo: David Brooks (US) |
In
discussion of the activity on enhancing public relations,
education and outreach activities,
Switzerland
suggested addition of a phrase “including coordination with
and support for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) or
similar institutions concerning reporting from Council
sessions.”
Above photo: Daniel Birchmeier (Switzerland)
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ITTO
Executive Director Manoel
Sobral Filho,
pointed out that ITTO receives progress reports on its
cooperation with the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) periodically, and has received a letter
commending ITTO for its work with UNFF.
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Malaysia
asked why there is concern about cooperation with UNFF, when
it is recognized as an important forum.
Above photo: Y.
Bhg. Dato’ Dr. Freezailah bin Che Yeom (Malaysia) |
With
respect to the suggestion by the Secretariat that ITTO might
make and maintain a website in Japanese, Japan responded that accurate calculation of costs for such a site
is important for securing funding.
Above photo: Hideo Fukishima (Japan)
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The Republic of Korea
indicated its support for the Secretariat’s collaboration
with UNFF.
Above photo: Kwang
Su Ryu (Republic of Korea)
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The CRF
reported, and the Council adopted, activities on: human
relations development through fellowship and on effective
enforcement of forest laws and regulations.
Above photo: CRF Chair Jennifer Conje (US) |
The CFI reported, and the
Council adopted, activities on: community-based forest
industries, competitiveness, bioenergy, investment and
non-timber forest products (NTFPs).
Above photo: CFI Chair Celestine Ntsame-Okwo
(Gabon)
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Committees on Economic Information
and Market Intelligence and the Committee on Forest
Industry (CEM/CFI):
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In
the afternoon, the Committees on Economic Information and Market
Intelligence and Forest Industry met to elect new officers for 2006,
review terms of reference for regional collaboration activities in
the Amazonian region, and consider elements of the Committees’
draft report.
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CEM/CFI
discussed two activities on
a study of subsidies and enhancement of statistical work, and
approved two terms of reference (TORs) on certification and a
Amazon basin sub-regional program. The following officers were
elected for 2006: Jung-Hwan Park (Republic of Korea), CFI
Chair, Dani
Pitoio (Indonesia): CFI Vice-Chair, James Gasana
(Switzerland), CEM Chair, Chantal Adingra (Côte
d’Ivoire), CEM Vice-Chair.
Above
photo L-R: The CEM/CFI, chaired by Celestine Ntsame-Okwo (CFI, Gabon) and
James Gasana (CEM, Switzerland); Amha Bin Buang
(ITTO)
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The Netherlands questioned
use of the term "equivalence" in the title of
the activity on certification.
Above
photo: Marcel Vernooij (The Netherlands) |
Norway suggested including
cooperation with FAO and IUCN in the activity on
certification.
Above photo L-R:
Jan Abrahamsen and Merethe Luís (Norway) |
Jung-Hwan Park
(Republic of Korea), incoming CFI Chair. |
Chantal Adingra (Côte
d’Ivoire) incoming CEM Vice-Chair. |
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Committee
on Reforestation and Forest Management (CRF):
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The Committee on Reforestation and Forest Management
considered project proposals, elected new officers for 2006 and
provided input for the Committee’s draft report.
Above photo L-R: CRF Chair Jennifer Conje (US) and
Petrus Gunarso (Indonesia)
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Germany
suggested early implementation of project proposal guidelines.
Above
photo: Peter Schröder (Germany)
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Ecuador
presented on a project regarding transboundary condor
conservation in conjunction with
Peru.
Above photo: Alfredo Carrasco (Ecuador)
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Thailand
reported on progress regarding the development of a project
designed to encourage reforestation of tsunami-affected regions.
Above
photo: Suchat Kalyawongsa (Thailand)
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Informal Joint Producer/Consumer
meeting on the Renegotiation of ITTA,1994
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During an informal joint Producer/Consumer meeting on
the renegotiation of the ITTA, 1994, Chair Attah discussed
outstanding issues related to the scope of the successor agreement. He
noted that, in addition to the frequency of Council Sessions, the name
of the Organization and the voting structure, there remained other
areas of difficulties including, inter
alia: the placement of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and
environmental services (ES); the use of the phrase indigenous peoples
and local communities; and references to international labor
conventions. He indicated that poor time management had caused
previous problems in delaying negotiations, and that newcomers to the
negotiations need to be briefed well in advance of ITTA-4 to avoid
stalling progress made to date.
Carlos Antonio da Rocha Paranhos, President of the UN
Conference, noted that substance, rather than administrative issues of
the successor agreement should be the focus of ITTA-4. He indicated
that negotiations would proceed in two working groups during the first
two days of ITTA-4, and if no progress was made during the first two
days, negotiations would take place in a formal plenary session.
Above photos L-R: Carlos
Antonio da Rocha Paranhos (Brazil) and ITTC
Chair Alhassan Attah (Ghana);
Chair Attah (Ghana) giving an update on the status of
the negotiations in Working Group I.
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Brazil,
on behalf
of the Producer Group, called attention to producer countries’
position to hold two rather than one Council sessions a year. He
suggested that the test before delegates on issues of scope
would be less challenging than those on finance.
Above photo: Luiz Gasser
(Brazil)
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Finland,
on behalf
of the Consumer Group, noted that preparations made during
ITTC-39 were a useful start to making progress at ITTA-4 and
that some contentious issues involved in the successor agreement
might be decided by Council instead of at ITTA-4.
Above photo: Aulikki Kauppila (Finland)
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Switzerland
said that
NTFPs and ES might be best reflected in the preamble of the new
Agreement, since the new Agreement would not expand but rather
confirm ITTO’s current work.
Above photo: Daniel Birchmeier (Switzerland)
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Indicating
that countries have different views of what constitutes SFM,
Cameroon
said the commonalities of countries’ work to promote SFM
rather than the differences must be used to make progress,
especially with regard to issues of finance.
Above photo: Denis
Koulagna Koutou
(Cameroon)
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ENB SNAPSHOTS:
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