22 November 2015: Observer participation and a disclosed loss of funds due to high-risk investments, as well as selection of a new Executive Director for the Organization, were the focus of discussions at the 51st session of the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC-51) and the associated sessions of its four Committees, which convened from 16-21 November 2015, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The selection of a new Executive Director for the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) was a key topic on the ITTC-51 agenda. After a week of intense negotiations, however, no selection was made between Gerhard Dieterle of Germany and Eduardo Mansur of Brazil, and the Council decided to restart the selection process and re-announce the vacancy in 2016. The meeting also addressed the loss of up to US$18 million of ITTO funds due to high-risk investments possibly in contravention of ITTO’s financial rules, and took a decision to commission an investigation, overseen by an oversight committee that should submit its report to the Council Chairperson by mid-April 2016. The session also focused on admission of observers and civil society participation, following ejection from the meeting of the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), a Swiss organization that is critical of logging practices in the Malaysian State of Sarawak.

The Council also discussed ITTO’s ongoing cooperation with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES); developments regarding forests in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); the ITTO/Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Collaborative Initiative; and regional ITTO presence and representation.

The 49th sessions of the Committee on Economics, Statistics and Markets and the Committee on Forest Industry, and the Committee on Reforestation and Forest Management also convened, to approve projects and pre-projects, review projects and pre-projects under implementation and conduct policy work. The 30th session of the Committee on Finance and Administration met to discuss the current status of the Administrative Account and the biennial administrative budget for 2016-2017. Activities funded under the biennial work programme include work on criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, ITTO’s involvement in the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, the participation of the Civil Society Advisory Group and the Trade Advisory Group in ITTO, and the ITTO-CITES programme for implementing CITES listings of tropical timber species.

The next session of ITTC is expected to take place in November 2016, in Yokohama, Japan. [IISD RS Coverage of ITTC-51] [ITTO Press Release] [ITTC-51 Meeting Documents]