One of the most serious obstacles to sustainable forest management (SFM) in many ITTO member countries is illegality in the extraction of forest resources and the trade of forest products. With the international community as close to consensus on the meaning of SFM as it is ever likely to be (all active SFM criteria-and-indicators processes now use the same seven thematic areas), attention has shifted to defining an equally contentious concept: the legality of forestry operations. This edition of the TFU examines this issue.
Tropical Forest Update

Issue 16 No 4
A legal matter
Contents
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Papua New Guinea – the other side of the story
Photo: SGS
Papua New Guinea has made progress in monitoring log exports
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Thailand's mission
Photo: M. Simula
A ban on logging in natural forests, which has been in place since 1989, may inadvertently have contributed to a decline in the quality of forest administration in the country. But SFM is still possible
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Partnership for good forest management
Photo: IFT
A joint initiative of researchers and timber industries in the Brazilian Amazon
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Tracking the wood
Photo: J. Lounasvuori
Many tropical countries need help to improve their timber-tracking systems
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ITTO's recently funded projects
The projects and pre-projects summarized below were financed at the 41st session of the International Tropical Timber Council
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Market trends
The TFU's regular look at tropical timber markets: bullish market in 2006
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Fellowship report
ITTO Fellowship Programme: contributing to capacity-building in sustainable tropical forest management
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On the conference circuit
Reports on the 41st Session of the International Tropical Timber Council, the 16th Meeting of Senior Fellowships Officers of the United Nations System and Host Country Agencies and an ITTO workshop on creating awareness in Africa on Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) forestry projects
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Recent editions and courses
New books and reports and short training courses for professionals in forestry and related disciplines
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Meetings
A comprehensive listing of coming conferences relevant to sustainable tropical forest management
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Vacancy announcements
Position openings at ITTO

Full edition
The ITTO Tropical Forest Update is published quarterly in English, French and Spanish.
The French and Spanish editions are usually posted about one month after the English.
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Content does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of ITTO. ITTO holds the copyright to all photos unless otherwise stated. Articles may be reprinted without charge providing the Tropical Forest Update and author are credited and the editor notified (tfu@itto.int).