Yokohama, Japan, 10 November 2022: Donors have contributed funds amounting to about USD 4.0 million to support the Organization’s work, according to announcements made today at the 58th session of the International Tropical Timber Council.

Of the new financial contributions, Japan has contributed USD 1.66 million, China, Macao SAR USD 1.33 million, the United States of America USD 534 000, Australia USD 305 000, China USD 83 000, the Republic of Korea USD 53 000, the CITES Secretariat USD 25 000 and Kisso-an USD 3000.[1]

Among other things, these funds will be used to promote the sustainable domestic consumption of wood products in Thailand; encourage strong and resilient domestic wood-product consumption in Indonesia; develop the Global Timber Index Platform; elaborate a blockchain-based timber traceability system; and, in Panama, scale up the Forest Traceability and Monitoring System—developed on a pilot basis under a previous ITTO project—to the entire national territory. Some projects and activities received partial funding and will commence should the balance of funding be forthcoming.[2]

[1] Numbers may not be exact.

[2] The full list of activities receiving voluntary contributions is contained in Decision 1 of the session (expected to be posted on the ITTO website by end November).

New ITTO Fellowships

The ITTO Fellowship Selection Panel has recommended that the International Tropical Timber Council award 13 new ITTO Fellowships in 2022. Of this potential group of Fellows, four are from Africa, five are from the Asia-Pacific region and four are from Latin America and the Caribbean. Six of the 13 candidates are women. The Council will consider the recommendations of the panel and make a final decision on the awards before the close of the session. The total value of the 13 Fellowships is approximately USD 77 000.

ITTO offers Fellowships through the Freezailah Fellowship Fund to promote human resource development and strengthen professional expertise in member countries in tropical forestry and related disciplines, including the sustainable management of tropical forests, the efficient use and processing of tropical timber, and the improvement of economic information on the international trade in tropical timber. The ITTO Fellowship Programme, established in 1989, has enabled more than 1400 young and mid-career professionals from 49 countries to pursue career development opportunities. Prominent donors to the programme are the governments of Japan, the USA, the Netherlands and Australia.

Articles on ITTO Fellowships written by the Fellows themselves are published in each edition of ITTO’s newsletter, the Tropical Forest Update. Most recently, doctoral student Sri Mulyati, from Indonesia, described how an ITTO Fellowship rescued her pandemic-disrupted fieldwork and enabled new insights into conflict management in the Kateri Wildlife Sanctuary, a 5000-ha protected area in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara Province.

Also today, the Council received presentations on the ITTO Biennial Work Programme (agenda item 14), cooperation and coordination with other organizations (agenda item 15), and the implementation of ITTO’s new financing architecture (agenda item 17). Under agenda item 15, ITTO Executive Director Sheam Satkuru proposed the creation of a youth advisory group to increase ITTO’s engagement with young people and to create opportunities for mutual learning. Ewald Rametsteiner, Deputy Director of Forestry Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), made an intervention outlining some of the areas of work being undertaken jointly by FAO, ITTO and other partners. Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo, Director at the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat, provided a statement, which Ms Satkuru read to Council delegates.

Delegates participated in brief excursions on day four to sites of interest near the conference centre. One site was Port Plus, Japan’s first fully wooden high-rise building. The facility takes advantage of new wood technologies such as laminated veneer lumber and cross-laminated timber to create a striking new architectural appearance to a height previously only possible using steel or concrete. Port Plus also uses an innovative wood technology designed to connect wooden columns with wooden beams by combining “glued in rod” joints with nuki, a traditional Japanese carpentry joint. The 12-storey building features 1990 cubic metres of wood, and its construction achieved a reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions of 1700 tonnes over a comparable steel structure. Its wooden columns and beams are certified as three-hour fire-resistant.

A second excursion destination was Sankeien Garden, which was created in the early 1900s and spans three coastal valleys over an area of 17.5 hectares. The third destination was the Landmark Tower observation deck. This deck, located on the Tower’s 69th floor, offers 360-degree views of Yokohama, Japan’s second-largest city.