ITTO–CITES programme

ITTO-CITES Program for Implementing CITES Listings of Tropical Timber Species

Introduction

This Project is a multi-year collaborative project between ITTO and CITES with financial support of the European Union through the European Commission together with other ITTO donors (U.S.A, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Netherlands, Japan, New Zealand and the private sector), that provides specific assistance to countries throughout the tropics to design forest management plans, forest inventories, provide guidelines and case studies for making “Non Detriment Findings” (NDFs) for CITES listed tree species, and to develop and disseminate tools for timber identification. This project,  plays an important role in implementing the recommendations of the CITES Mahogany Working Group (MWG) and CITES Plants Committee on mahogany and other tropical tree species such as ramin and afrormosia listed in CITES Appendix II.

Overall Objective

To ensure that international trade in CITES-listed timber species is consistent with their sustainable management and conservation.

Specific Objective

To assist national authorities to meet the scientific, administrative and legal requirements for managing and regulating trade in Pericopsis elata (Afrormosia) found in Central Africa, Swietenia macrophylla (Bigleaf mahogany) found in Latin America, and Gonystylus spp. (Ramin) found in Asia and, in particular, to develop guidance to ensure that utilization is not detrimental to the survival of CITES-listed tropical timber species.

Specific Activities

Planning and management

Activity 1.1:
National and regional projects

Formulate national project needs and priorities and design activities.

Formulate regional needs and priorities and prepare regional project programme and budget in consultation with relevant parties.

Forest management

Activity 2.1:
Forest Inventory Design

Improve inventory design for resource assessment of CITES-listed timber species by capacity building and applied research to inter-alia utilise accessible technologies.

Activity 2.2:
Silviculture

Improve knowledge concerning ecology and silviculture of each species through information gathering to fill identified knowledge gaps.

Activity 2.3:
Management Plans/ Non-Detriment Findings

Develop or improve management plans and/or non-detriment findings for sustainable management and conservation of the species in each of the range states.

Social Economic and Institutional

Activity 3.1:
National fora and Regional Working Group

Promote initial or further national fora and Regional Working Groups to raise awareness of sustainable use, the role of sustainable development, and of the CITES legislation.

Activity 3.2:
Cost-effective regulatory systems

Develop co-operative and cost-effective regulatory systems for product tracking and chains of custody by identifying training needs relating to industry and trade, understanding market studies, and identifying and implementing economic incentives for compliance.

Activity 3.3:
CITES training workshops

Strengthen CITES trade compliance systems through training workshops for relevant staff and capacity-building in key CITES compliance areas.

Activity 3.4:
Outreach

Produce technical guides and materials constituting a "tool box" for range States and trading partners.