Private sector forest companies operating in ITTO producer and developing consumer member countries are hereby invited to participate in the ITTO initiative on innovative timber tracking systems aimed principally at promoting trade in tropical timber and timber products from sustainably managed and legally harvested sources. Under this initiative, selected companies will be provided with ITTO financial assistance to develop innovative timber tracking systems using commercially available hardware and software (conventional paper-based systems are excluded) and contribute to the dissemination of information on volumes of tropical timber and timber products tracked under these innovative systems through a website to be developed for this purpose.

This ITTO initiative is being implemented under Strategic Policy Activity 13: Promote trade in tropical timber and tropical timber products from sustainably managed and legally harvested sources [PP-A/43-194] approved and funded under the ITTO Biennial Work Programme 2008-2009 and the ITTO Programme Support on Tropical Forest Law Enforcement and Trade (TFLET) by the International Tropical Timber Council at its Forty-third Session held in Yokohama, Japan from 5 to 10 November 2007. ITTO funding is currently available to support six proposals and contribute a maximum amount of US$44,247.00 for each proposal.

Interested and eligible companies are invited to submit proposals for their participation in this ITTO initiative to the ITTO Secretariat for its consideration. Each proposal will be assessed in terms of its relevance, feasibility and practicality for implementation. Each proposal should not exceed five pages in length and should include the following:

1. (i) Purpose and goals;
2. (ii) Methodology;
3. (iii) Intended outputs and impacts;
4. (iv) Key activities to be carried out;
5. (v) Duration;
6. (vi) Budget by activity and source, including counter-part funding if its exceeds US$44,247;
7. (vii) Work Plan.