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The 34th Session of the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC)
(Summary and Evaluation)

June 2003

The 34th Session of the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC) was held in Panama City from the 12th to the 17th of May 2003. Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Forestry Agency participated in the Session. The following is the summary and evaluation of this Council Session.

1. Summary

(1) The Chairperson of the Council, the Executive Director of ITTO, the Minister for Economy and Forestry of Gabon, the Minister for Fisheries, Crops, Livestock and Forestry of Guyana, the Governor of State of Acre of Brazil, the Minister for Environment of Panama and the First Vice-President of Panama were all present and made speeches during the Opening Session held on the 12th May.

Dr. Freezailah, the Chairperson of the Council expressed the sincere gratitude in his speech to the Government of Japan and Yokohama City for their successive support to the ITTO since its establishment, and the ITTO is now encouraged to develop new ways of cooperation with Civil Society organizations including NGOs with attaching more importance to the environmental issues.

(2) The following discussions on main agenda items were made.

  1. "The Potential Role of Phased Approaches to Certification in Tropical Timber Producer Countries as a tool to promote Sustainable Forest Management" (Item 11)
    Brazil, Switzerland and Guatemala pointed out that it takes time to improve legislative environment for Phased Approaches to Certification. Japan stated the prevalent Certification would be highly important to promote Sustainable Forest Management and to be effective to prevention of illegal logging.
  2. "Civil Society/ Private Sector Partnerships for Sustainable Forest Management" (Item 12)
    Many Member Countries including Brazil, Switzerland and the United States supported the concept of this agenda item. Meanwhile, many countries pointed out that some concrete guidelines and the unified format among the member countries should be further considered.
  3. "Measures to Improve Project Formulation and Approval" (Item 13)
    The United States claimed transparency and effectiveness are important in formulating projects. New Zealand stated the project formulation cost should be kept minimum. The European Union pointed out that it is also important to take geographical balance for project appraisal into account. Japan stated that it is required to formulate projects effectively and efficiently with technical assistance by experts and the ITTO Secretariat. In addition, Japan has submitted a draft decision which requests experts to examine the appropriate measures for prompt project implementation (cf.(3)(a)), based on the recognition that proper management of Project Implementation is of the utmost importance.

(3) The following decisions were adopted at this Session:

  1. "Management of Project Implementation" (Decision 8 (XXXIV))
    Japan proposed this draft decision at this Session to facilitate project implementation.
    It was decided to:
    • Compile information on the current status of the Projects and Pre-Projects.
    • Identify causes of delay in the implementation of the Projects and Pre-Projects and challenges in effective monitoring of the project work.
    • Convene an Expert Panel by the end of October 2003, in order to determine the remedial actions necessary and to prepare a report for the consideration of the Council at its 35th Session to be held in Yokohama, Japan.

    To support activities related to this decision, a contribution amounting $50,000 was pledged by Japan.

  2. "Strengthening the Asia Forest Partnership" (Decision 3 (XXXIV))
    Japan also proposed this draft decision at this Session.
    The Asia Forest Partnership was launched as a Type II initiative at the World Summit an Sustainable Development (WSSD) in August 2002, which includes supporting sustainable forest management, combating illegal logging, managing forest fire and promoting forest restoration in the Asia region.
    It was decided to:
    • Support the Governments of Indonesia and Japan in convening a regional workshop that brings together broad range of stakeholders, including relevant civil-society and private-sector organizations in the Asia and Pacific region.
    • Support the development of a network for the sharing of information among Asia Forest Partnership participants, including civil-society and private-sector stakeholders.
    • Report on progress being made in the implementation of this decision at the 37th Session of the Council.

    To support activities related to this decision, a contribution amounting $126,500 was pledged by Japan, $10,000 each by the United States, Australia, Norway and Finland.

  3. "Matters Related to Article 16 of ITTA, 1994" (Decision 5 (XXXIV))
    Noting that the International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994, has been extended until 31 December 2006, it was decided to renew the mandate of Dr. Manoel Sobral Filho as the Executive Director of the International Tropical Timber Organization with effect from 6 November 2003 to 5 November 2007 as the second term of his appointment.

2. Evaluation

(1) The draft decision of "Strengthening the Asia Forest Partnership" which the Governments of Japan and Indonesia proposed to the Council was supported by many member countries and was adopted as a Decision 3 at this Session.

(2) Regarding "Measures to Improve Project Formulation and Approval" (Item 13), some Producer Countries expressed complaints that there are some projects which have not been implemented since the approval by the Council and they strongly requested a review of the resource allocation and project cycles. In this regard, a draft decision entitled "Management of Project Implementation" which was proposed by Japan was also supported by many member countries including the United States and was adopted as a Decision 8 at this Session.

(3) Japan has called on other Consumer Countries officially and unofficially in this Session for more voluntary contribution to support the ITTO. In response to the Japan's request, the European Union replied at the Council Session to step up its effort to make voluntary contribution as EU in the near future under the Successor Agreement to the ITTA, 1994. In addition, Norway, Sweden and Netherlands showed their cooperative attitude.

(4) What the ITTO should be in the future is to develop the cooperative relationship with other international organizations and fora including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Forest Forum (UNFF), the Global Environmental Facilities (GEF) and World Bank with a view to sharing common views for tackling Global issues. In making a Successor Agreement to the ITTA, 1994, it is necessary to introduce some mechanism to obtain financial contributions constantly from donor countries not only in the administrative account but also in the special account for the steady implementation of projects and pre-projects.

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