Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 3 • Number 10 • 2nd June 2003

TROPICAL TIMBER COUNCIL MAKES PROGRESS ON FOREST CERTIFICATION

Do More

Subscribe to the BioRes

* Required Field

Email Address: *

Country: *
Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua And Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas, The Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, Democractic Republic of the Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Croatia (Hrvatska) Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Islands Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia, The Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong S.A.R. Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea Korea, North Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau S.A.R. Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, The New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua new Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Island Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts And Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent And The Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia And The South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard And Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad And Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks And Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States United States Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State (Holy See) Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands (British) Virgin Islands (US) Wallis And Futuna Islands Yemen Yugoslavia Zambia Zimbabwe

Employment Sector (Academia, Govt., Private Sector, NGO, IGO): *

First Name:

Last Name:

Organisation:

Enter the letters shown above:*

Download this issue

See also

TROPICAL TIMBER COUNCIL MAKES PROGRESS ON FOREST CERTIFICATION

Delegates at the 34th Council of the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) from 12-17 May in Panama City, Panama, made important progress on the contentious issue of certification, adopting a decision on phased certification schemes for sustainable forest management, which authorises the Executive Director to undertake further work on this issue.

Trade-related issues also featured during discussion on economic aspects of forests at the third session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF-3), meeting from 26 May to 6 June in Geneva, Switzerland, although attention in the first week focused largely on the two other main issues under discussion, namely forest health and productivity and maintaining forest cover.

Progress on voluntary certification schemes at ITTC-34

Based on a report prepared by the ITTO Secretariat on issues affecting market access for tropical timber, delegates at the 34th Council meeting (ITTC-34) discussed, inter alia, monitoring tariff and non-tariff barriers; impacts of trade on sustainable forest management; and the development of phased certification schemes. Among the most significant achievements of the meeting in this regard was the adoption of a decision on phased approaches to forest certification (PA), which authorises the Executive Director to engage consultants from both producer and consumer countries to examine the costs and benefits of PAs in certain member countries and to develop procedures to implement PAs. In addition, the Executive Director is instructed to convene an international workshop on this issue and report to the Council no later than ITTC-38.

This decision marked an important step forward in the certification debate that has long divided producer and consumer countries in the ITTO (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 21 November 2002). A phased approach involves dividing full compliance with the certification standard into a series of interim targets or milestones, thereby allowing limited resources to be focused on one or two tasks at a time. The system would allow producer countries, which have no certification schemes in place yet, to attain certification more easily and thereby improve market accessibility for their tropical timber products. For their part, consumer countries have signalled their willingness to discuss PAs as one among several possibilities to ensure sustainable forest management, but would prefer to assess the actual costs and benefits before giving their final approval.

Regarding the relationship between the ITTO and the WTO, delegates adopted a decision mandating the Executive Director of the ITTO to report on the development of negotiations at the WTO on tariffs on tropical timber products.

Economic Aspects of Forests "Featuring" at UNFF-3

While certification featured high on the ITTC agenda, trade-related issues took a backseat in the first week of UNFF-3. During one morning of discussions based on the World Bank paper on the economic aspects of forests (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 15 May 2003), delegates touched on issues such as the economic valuation of environmental services provided by forests, enhanced market access for forest products from sustainably managed forests, and the harmonisation of certification schemes.

The G-77/China supported by India and Indonesia regarded the report as a set-back compared to the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests / Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IPF/IFF) proposals for action and the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, expressing particular disappointment with the lack of references to new and additional financial resources. UNFF should avoid further normative debate, they noted, but should instead focus on implementing the proposals for action already agreed upon by IPF/IFF. Several countries also highlighted forest-related issues being discussed at the WTO such as subsidies, environmental goods and services, technology transfer and market access. Delegates did not manage to finalise their discussion on the economic aspects of forests and agreed to resume on Monday, 2 June.

Additional Resources

For daily briefings of both meetings see IISD Linkages.

ICTSD Reporting; ENB Vol. 24 No. 21, 19 May 2003; Vol. 13 No. 100, 2 June 2003.