A three-year action plan has been published by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) with an aim of boosting the production of legal and sustainable tropical timber.
The plan, composed by an ITTO working group nominated by producer and consumer countries, is intended to help deliver the objectives of the UN International Tropical Timber Agreement.
It lists increased production, further processing and export of value-added products as key targets.
ITTO, which to date has itself provided more than US$300m to finance over 800 projects, will promote private investment in the tropical forest industry by facilitating information exchange on investment opportunities. It will also commission and publish tropical timber processing studies to identify and quantify the final use of processed wood products and pin down critical knowledge and information gaps.
For more information see the next issue of TTJ.
