The 36th session of the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC-36) met from 20-23 July 2004, in Interlaken, Switzerland.

Delegates to ITTC-36 discussed a range of issues, including: preparations for negotiating a successor agreement to the 1994 International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA, 1994); progress reports on the study of forest law enforcement and governance (FLEG) in Malaysia and Honduras; phased approaches to certification; developments in UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)/Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) discussions regarding forests; and the promotion of sustainable forest management (SFM) in the Congo Basin. Delegates also considered the recommendations of a joint workshop involving the Trade Advisory Group and Civil Society Advisory Group on the issue of illegal logging and illegal trade. In the end, delegates approved 11 projects and seven pre-projects and pledged US$5.7 million in new project funding.
The 34th sessions of the ITTC’s Committees on Economic Information and Market Intelligence (CEM), Forest Industry (CFI) and Reforestation and Forest Management (CRF) also met to consider, inter alia: completed projects and pre-projects; ex-post evaluations; projects, pre-projects and activities in progress; and project and pre-project proposals. The fifteenth Committee on Finance and Administration (CFA) met to consider, inter alia: the status of the Administrative Account, the appointment of a new auditor, and resources of the Special Account and the Bali Partnership Fund.
Overall, ITTC-36 can be characterized as a successful meeting. Many delegates noted the significance of the Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG)/Trade Advisory Group (TAG) joint workshop on illegal logging and illegal trade as an historic opportunity for these two groups to work collaboratively on an issue of mutual concern. ITTC-36 proceeded smoothly given that ITTC-35 had taken a decision to limit the decisions taken at ITTC-36 to those of only a routine nature. ITTC-35 had taken this decision for a few reason: first, to minimize the possibility of controversial Council issues that might condition the pending renegotiation and, second, to experiment with how well the Council could function with only one decision-making Council session per year. There is no doubt, however, that more contentious issues, namely ITTO’s financial position and scope, will be the subject of debate during the renegotiation of the successor agreement to the ITTA, 1994 to be held in Geneva, Switzerland from 26-30 July 2004. The Earth Negotiations Bulletin coverage of this meeting is available at: http://enb.iisd.org/forestry/itto/ittc36/