Tropical Timber Organization Funds Conservation Projects

YOKOHAMA, Japan, December 23, 2004 (ENS) - The International Tropical Timber Council has decided to invest US$10 million in 16 new conservation projects in the tropical forests of Africa and Asia. In addition, the Council adopted a revised set of criteria and indicators for the sustainable management of natural tropical forests at its semi-annual meeting last week.

The Council is the governing body of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the conservation and sustainable management, use and trade of tropical forest resources.

"Forest managers are busy people," said Dr. Juergen Blaser who chaired the revisions committee, explaining the need to change the management criteria. "If these kinds of tools are too complicated then they won’t be used. So we have reduced the number of conditions that we want forest managers to monitor and report, and we have simplified the instructions for doing so."

The seven original criteria have been retained, with some changes in language to harmonize them with other international initiatives. The number of reporting items has been reduced from 89 to 56, and some of those retained have been amended.

The ITTO's Dr. Juergen Blaser at an international forestry negotiating meeting May 2003 in Panama. (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulleti)

The revised criteria and indicators will be published in English, French and Spanish in March 2005.

Among the activities funded at this session was a review and revision of the ITTO guidelines for the conservation of biodiversity in tropical timber producing forests. Since the original guidelines were published in 1992, new approaches to biodiversity conservation have been designed and tested.

The revision, which will be done in collaboration with IUCN, the Convention on Biological Diversity and other relevant organizations, will take these into account with the aim of producing state of the art guidelines for use at the national and forest management unit levels.

The Council's actions are supported by the European Commission, which Tuesday committed €20 million to support the EU Action Plan for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT), which aims to combat illegal logging and related trade. The funds are part of a new commitment of more than €60 million for projects to support the conservation and sustainable management of forests in developing countries.

The World Bank estimates that developing country governments are currently losing some US$10 to 15 billion annually due to illegal logging.

The European Commission outlined its support for international and nongovernmental organizations and the private sector through a range of pilot activities, to promote governance reform in countries affected by illegal logging and to facilitate trade in legally harvested timber.

Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, called on the countries that consume wood to recognize the vital role they must play in closing down the international trade in illegal timber. "The European Commission is committed to combating illegal logging, by helping to improve law enforcement and governance in wood producing countries, and by working to stop the trade in illegally harvested wood and wood products," he said.

A logger is pleased with his illegally cut timber. (Photo courtesy CIFOR)

The Council has chosen to fund a project that will develop national level principles, criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management in the Republic of Congo, which holds some of the world's last untouched forests.

Fire management and post-fire forest restoration in Ghana is being funded. The project involves ITTO member countries from West Africa working together with the IUCN-World Conservation Union's FireFight Initiative. This effort aims to help practitioners and policy makers secure the policy reforms and practical actions necessary to prevent and control harmful fires and mitigate their negative impacts.

A review of forest fire management strategies and practices in Ghana highlighted the direct and indirect causes of fires in this West African country, which were further examined during a pre-project workshop that was organized for key stakeholders in May 2003.

During the workshop some problematic issues were raised, the IUCN said - the unclear institutional framework, ineffective legal frameworks, insufficient technical capacities to combat fire as well as lack of awareness in relation to fires. The need for more local community involvement fire management strategy became clear.

Also funded is the continuing development of the Pha Taem transboundary conservation area in the Emerald Triangle of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

Funding from the ITTO will help establish seed orchards for indigenous tree species in Sabah, Malaysia.

Another project will strengthen capacity in China to implement the National Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting.

Funding will also be made available to assist in the establishment of collaborative forest management in Jambi, Indonesia.

The Council also decided to continue to strengthen cooperation with the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) in the application of CITES rules to the trade of mahogany and ramin species.

The major donors at this session were the governments of Japan, Switzerland, the United States and the Netherlands, while the governments of Finland, Norway, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand also pledged funds.