ENB @ the Negotiation of a Successor Agreement to the ITTA

Friday, 18 February

On the final day of the UN Conference on the Negotiation of a Successor Agreement to the International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994 (ITTA, 1994), delegates met in two Working Groups and in a closing plenary session. In the morning, delegates in Working Group I continued negotiating the Objectives for the new Agreement, and delegates in Working Group II made progress on text in Chapter X (Miscellaneous), Chapter XI (Final Provisions) and Chapter VI (Finance).

After delegates met in short afternoon Working Group sessions, they convened in a closing plenary session to discuss the negotiation’s outcomes and agree to dates for a Third Part of the UN Conference.

Chair Attah (right) and Vice Chair McAlpine coordinated the discussions carried out in Working Group I that dealt with issues such as Objectives and Definitions of the new Agreement


United Nations Conference for the Negotiation of a Successor Agreement to the ITTA, 1994 (second part)
	14-18 February 2005, Geneva, Switzerland

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ENB Summary

Síntesis del BNT

Compte rendu du BNT


	At the closing plenary, delegates agreed to convene a Third Part of the UN Conference on the Negotiation of a Successor Agreement to the International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994 from 27 June - 1 July 2005. Although UNCTAD has not yet decided on a conference venue, the venue will soon be announced on the UNCTAD website.
Chair Alhassam Attah closed the discussion in WGI		UN Conference President Amb. Carlos Antônio da Rocha Paranhos underscored that delegates agreed that the organization should to continue to exist and have a sound financial base


	Working Group II Chair Koichi Ito (Japan) presided over discussion of finance, miscellaneous legal provisions and final provisions		Bjorg Merethe Luis (Norway) and Mike Fullerton (Canada) discussed finance issues


	Netherlands cautioned that if only members bring complaints to Council, the Executive Director would be prevented from raising issues.		Switzerland discussed issues related to review of the agreement by the Council


	Peru cautioned against turning Council into a legal dispute resolution mechanism		Freezailah bin Che Yeom, Malaysia, took part in the negotiations carried out in WGI


	The EC said there was no pressure to link the budget and work programme periods		Luiz Cesar Gasser, Brazil, on behalf of Producer Group, expressed hope that the Third Part of the negotiations will reach a successor agreement that suits the interests of all members


	Martial Kouame, Côte D'Ivoire, noted that ITTA, 1994 recognizes the importance of preserving genetic resources in tropical forests and that this should be referred to in the new Agreement		Indonesia spoke on behalf of the Asia-Pacific countries in the closing plenary, noting that ITTA must remain a commodity agreement

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ITTO website, with provisional program, documents
for the meeting, and information about the ITTO.
ENB summary from ITTC-37: (HTML, PDF, TEXT)
ENB summary from ITTC-36: (HTML, PDF, TEXT).
ENB summary from ITTC-35: (HTML, PDF, TEXT).
ENB summary from ITTC-34: (HTML, PDF, TEXT).
ENB summary from ITTC-33: (HTML, PDF, TEXT).
ENB SD – UNFF CLI in Mexico
ENB summary from ITTA, 1994 renegotiation, 26-30 July 2004
UNCTAD (ITTA link)
UNFF Website
Linkages forests, desertification and land issues page,
including a brief introduction to global forest policy.
UNFF Country Led Initiative
International Conference on Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management (CICI)
Trade and Sustainable Forest Management