Fourteen fellowships were awarded by the International Tropical Timber Organization at the 55^th Session of International Tropical Timber Council. The newest group of fellows represents 9 different producer member countries and includes 4 female fellows.  The total amount of the fellowships was US$97,666.40.

Green tropical timber supply chains, biological corridors and forest monitoring are all important components of forests-based solutions to climate change, according to a side-event organized by ITTO and the Japan Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI) at the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 25) to the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Madrid, Spain.

Participants in the 55th Session of the International Tropical Timber Council visited the Missahoé Reserved Forest near Togo’s capital, Lomé, on the final day of the session. This forest was the site of a pre-project and project funded by ITTO more than a decade ago to encourage the rehabilitation and sustainable management of the forest

The International Tropical Timber Council has welcomed new guidelines aimed at assisting the restoration of degraded tropical forests and forest lands and thereby enabling the sustainable management of landscapes over time. This was one of the outcomes of day 5 of the Council’s 55th Session.

Involving women in forestry can reduce pressure on deforestation and improve forest management, but they need assistance to enable their enterprises to grow. This was one of the conclusions to arise from a panel discussion on “women and markets” convened by the Civil Society Advisory Group on day 4 of the 55th Session of the International Tropical Timber Council.

A subregional ITTO project has helped build human resource capacity for achieving the sustainable management of tropical forest ecosystems in the Congo Basin. The project was one of seven declared completed by the Committee on Reforestation and Forest Management on day 3 of the 55th Session of the Interrnational Tropical Timber Council.