The International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) is to provide US$10.1m of funding to support projects and activities promoting conservation and sustainable forest management.
ITTO’s funding will split across a range of projects and pre-projects from around the world, including developing sustainable management programmes in the Brazilian Amazon and establishing a tree cloning programme in the Ivory Coast.
Around US$4m will be spent on a new Tropical Forest Law Enforcement and Trade progamme, with US$2m allocated to schemes such as a joint ITTO/African Timber Organisation project to promote sustainability and certification in Africa and forest law enforcement in Papua New Guinea.
The funding was pledged by the ITTO Council at its 43rd session, where a biennial work programme for 2008-09 with a budget of US$9.2m was also approved. The money will be used to fund ITTO’s work over the biennium, including developing “a response to climate change negotiations and their implications for tropical forests”.
ITTO pledged US$5.6m of funding at its May council session, bringing its total funding budget for 2007 to US$15.7m.
