Fiftieth Session of the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC) and Associated Sessions of the Four Committees

The fiftieth session of the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC) entered its second day of discussions today in Yokohama, Japan.

In the morning, a joint Producer and Consumer caucus was held to pose questions to the six candidates for the position of ITTO Executive Director. Delegates then convened in a Joint Committee Session to hear the Report of the Expert Review Panel and discuss ex-post evaluations of several projects.

In the afternoon, delegates met in a Council session to discuss the ITTO Biennial Work Programme and strengthening regional ITTO presence through, inter alia, potentially creating regional offices. Delegates also briefly considered the election of the next ITTO Executive Director, with Brazil officially supporting the candidacy of Eduardo Mansur (Brazil), and committing to paying its arrears. The discussion was postponed to give time for caucus consultations.

Later in the afternoon, the Committee on Reforestation and Forest Management (CRF) and the Committee on Finance and Administration (CFA) met in parallel. The CFA discussed, inter alia: the biennial administrative budget; contributions to the administrative budgets; and a report on mobilizing new funding and partnerships for ITTO. The CRF discussed, inter alia: policy work and the Biennial Work Programme for committees.

The Committee on Economics, Statistics and Markets and the Committee on Forest Industry (CEM-CFI) met in the evening to discuss policy work and new projects and pre-projects.