The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) is an
intergovernmental organization
Globalization is social change associated with increased connectivity among societies and their elements and the explosive evolution of transportation and telecommunication technologies to facilitate international cultural and economic exchange. ...
that promotes
conservation of
tropical forest
Tropical forests are forested ecoregions with tropical climates – that is, land areas approximately bounded by the Tropic of Cancer, tropics of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing ...
resources and their
sustainable management
Sustainable management takes the concepts from sustainability and synthesizes them with the concepts of management. Sustainability has three branches: the environment, the needs of present and future generations, and the economy. Using these bran ...
, use and trade.
Organization
The organization was established under the
International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), which was sponsored by the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the United Nations General Assembl ...
and was ratified in 1985.
Its mandate was renewed by the
International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994 and again by the
International Tropical Timber Agreement, 2006, which aims to promote sustainable management and legal harvesting of forests that produce tropical timber, and to promote expansion and diversification of international
timber trade There are multiple market layers for wood products. Each country has its own domestic market that may be connected to a regional or global market. Timber supply to domestic markets in many tropical forest countries is largely provided by informal lo ...
from these forests.
The governing body is the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC). Half the votes on the ITTC are assigned to producing countries and half to consumers. Within each block, votes are assigned based on market share.
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Mandate and activities
The ITTO was at first primarily a commodity
In economics, a commodity is an economic goods, good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the Market (economics), market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to w ...
organization, regulating the international trade in tropical timber
Tropical timber may refer to any type of timber or wood that grows in tropical rainforests and tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests and is harvested there. Typical examples of worldwide industrial significance include, among others, t ...
. The original mandate mentioned conservation but did not give any details. In 1990 the ITTC proposed that by 2000 all exports of tropical timber would come from sustainably managed sources, and this goal was adopted.[
In 1987 the ITTO commissioned the ]Harvard Institute for International Development
The Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) was a think-tank dedicated to helping nations join the global economy, operating between 1974 and 2000. It was a center within Harvard University, United States.
Foundation and leadership ...
to prepare a review of current knowledge of multiple-use management of tropical forest
Tropical forests are forested ecoregions with tropical climates – that is, land areas approximately bounded by the Tropic of Cancer, tropics of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing ...
s. Of interest was the potential for non-timber forest product
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are useful foods, substances, materials and/or commodities obtained from forests other than timber. Harvest ranges from wild collection to farming. They typically include game animals, fur-bearers, nuts, see ...
s and services that could assist in sustaining the forests. HIID completed the study in 1988 and issued updated versions in 1990 and 1992.
The ITTO publishes a quarterly newsletter, ''Tropical Forest Update'' (), available also online.[ITTO. ''Tropical Forest Update'' 22(1):2.]
See also
* List of forestry ministries
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Sustainable forest management
International forestry organizations
Intergovernmental environmental organizations