INTERNATIONAL TIMBER ORGANISATION CITES FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES

The forty-first session of the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC-41) was held from 6-11 November in Yokohama, Japan. Issues discussed included the transition to a new treaty to govern trade in tropical timber and the current financing challenges. Participants also discussed linkages with work to combat climate change.

While deforestation remains a real threat to tropical forests, a new study shows that forest cover is expanding in countries with higher GDP.

Urgent funding needs

Opening the meeting, Manoel Sobral Filho, Executive Director of ITTO, said that insufficient funding was the single biggest obstacle to achieving the organisation's objectives. Project funding supports a substantial share of the work of the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), the ITTO's signature legal instrument regulating trade in sustainably harvested timber. However, voluntary contributions by donor countries for ITTO project work have been falling steadily since the early 1990s. In order to reverse the decline, both the European Commission and the Netherlands announced new contributions to projects.

Project proposals must be submitted by member governments, but can be implemented by any government or non-government organisation. Many ITTO projects are aimed directly at helping to achieve ITTO Objective 2000, which refers to members' commitment to move as rapidly as possible towards ensuring that tropical timber exports are sourced from sustainably managed forests. Examples of projects considered at the ITTC-41 include some focusing on: promoting and creating market demand for certified tropical wood and verified legal tropical wood in Japan; sustainable management and utilisation of tropical bamboo in China; and enhancement of the timber marketing information system in Papua New Guinea.

Entry into force of ITTA, 2006

Members talked about preparations for entry into force of the 2006 ITTA which was finalised in January, following intensive negotiations under the auspices of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 3 February 2006, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/06-02-03/story3.htm). The new commodities agreement, which is the successor pact to the 1994 ITTA, aims to promote the expansion and diversification of international trade in legally harvested tropical timber from sustainably managed forests, as well as to encourage the sustainable management of such forests.

A document circulated by the ITTO Secretariat during the meeting identified actions that member countries, the Council and the Secretariat itself would have to do to ensure a successful transition from the old agreement to the new one.

Member countries, for example, need to sign, ratify, accept and approve the new agreement. The Council is to propose a plan for the functioning and scope of the various operational committees under the treaty. The ITTO's governing body will also need to establish a schedule and procedure for submitting, appraising, approving and prioritising projects seeking funding from the organisation, as well as for their implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The establishment of criteria for approving projects will have to take into account "their relevance to the objectives of [ITTA, 2006] and to priority areas for work or thematic programmes, their environmental and social effects, their relationship to national forest programmes and strategies, their cost effectiveness, technical and regional needs, the need to avoid duplication of efforts, and the need to incorporate lessons learned," according to the document.

The actions to be taken by the Secretariat relate to rules of procedures, finance and projects.

China now the largest importer of tropical timber

The 2006 annual review of global timber trade shows that China is becoming the world's top importer of tropical timber. This increase in China's demand for raw materials is caused by the country's tremendous economic growth. According to environmental organisation WWF, China's demand for imported industrial wood (timber, paper and pulp) will grow by at least 33 percent within the next five years, from the current 94 million cubic meters to 125 million cubic meters.

No new CITES listings for tropical timber species

At the meeting, the Secretariat reported that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) did not propose new listings for tropical timber species, and had decided not to subject mahogany to either a review or an import ban. In July, the Plants Committee members of CITES specifically discussed how to protect bigleaf mahogany, one of the most valuable species in the international timber trade due to its hard wood (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 14 July 2006, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/06-07-14/inbrief.htm#2). The ITTO works to enhance cooperation among governments on CITES matters related to tropical timber and improve the capacity of members to implement CITES listings of timber species.

Climate change - a new area of work?

At the meeting, member countries discussed expanding the ITTO's work on climate change. The potential new area of work would focus on the implications of climate change and related policy developments for tropical forests, and the contribution of tropical forests to mitigating the effects of climate change.

Some delegations opposed the development of such activities, reportedly citing concerns that donor countries might decrease ITTO project funding because of their interest in preserving forests as carbon sinks (as an alternative to investing money in measures to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions at home). Other country members, however, said that developing a programme of work on climate change could attract increased funding, and cooperation in the area of climate change could allow countries to influence the climate change policy process in order to ensure that the interests of tropical timber producers were heard.

A new study on forest coverage

While ITTC-41 Chair Koichi Ito (Japan) opened the Council session by saying that global deforestation is continuing at a rate of 13 million hectares per year, a new study published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 13 November reported that many of the world's forests are recovering, and some are more thickly forested now than they were nearly 200 years ago. Co-author Roger Sedji said that forest coverage increases with economic growth. The study found that almost every country with a per capita gross domestic product over US$4.600 has moved to reforestation, by putting in place policies that protect forested land.

The next ITTC will be held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on 7-12 May 2007.

Additional resources

For daily reporting, see IISD linkages http://www.iisd.ca/forestry/itto/ittc41/

For previous news coverage of ITTA and other forestry developments, visit http://www.trade-environment.org/page/ictsd/news/forestswater.htm

For relevant resources, visit http://www.trade-environment.org/page/theme/nat_res/forest.htm

For relevant links, visit http://www.trade-environment.org/page/links/forests.htm

ICTSD reporting; ENB Vol. 24 No. 76, 13 November 2006; "China's Timber Imports Surge in 2006", MONGABAY.COM, 21 May 2006; "World's Forests' are Making a Comeback - Study", REUTERS, 14 November 2006.