The International Tropical Timber Council (ITTO) has pledged US$4.5m in grants to help member companies with their forest management and to expand the tropical timber trade.
The governments of Japan, Switzerland, the US, Norway, Australia, Finland and Korea are financially backing the scheme.
The funds will be used in a range of activities – for instance a US$1.5m project will help in the conservation and reforestation of threatened mangrove forests along Panama’s Pacific coast.
ITTO will also continue to support improved forest harvesting, financing a training programme for reduced impact logging in the Brazilian Amazon and another for forestry and forest concession management training in Central African forestry schools.
At its 34th session, ITTO also agreed to take action related to phased approaches to certification in tropical timber producing countries.
During the annual market discussion, delegates were told new timber import regulations in the EU could have a dramatic impact on the tropical timber trade.
From April 1 next year exporters will have to apply the CE marking based on EU standard EN 13986. To do so, manufacturers will need to install quality-control systems in factories and use a certified testing laboratory with third party auditing.
Several tropical plywood producers voiced concern, saying they did not have the necessary certified testing laboratories and that time to meet the new requirements was too short.
