The thirty-fourth session of the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC-34) will meet from 12-17 May 2003, in Panama City, Panama. The session will consider, inter alia: CITES listing proposals; the role of phased approaches to certification for sustainable forest management (SFM); civil society and private sector partnerships for SFM; measures to improve project formulation and appraisal; preparations for negotiating a successor agreement to the 1994 International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA, 1994); progress on achieving the Year 2000 Objective; issues affecting market access for tropical timber; forest law enforcement in the context of sustainable timber production; progress in implementing ITTO�s 2003 work programme; matters related to Article 16 regarding the ITTO Executive Director and staff; review of, and contributions to, the Special Account and the Bali Partnership Fund; and the Fellowship Programme.

The 32nd sessions of the ITTC�s Committees on Economic Information and Market Intelligence (CEM), Forest Industry (CFI), and Reforestation and Forest Management (CRF) will also meet to, inter alia: consider the report of the Expert Panel for Technical Appraisal of Project Proposals; hold the ITTO 2003 market discussion; consider reports on completed projects and pre-projects; conduct ex-post evaluations; review projects, pre-projects and activities in progress; consider project and pre-project proposals; and discuss policy work. The ITTC�s Committee on Finance and Administration (CFA) will convene its 13th session to review, inter alia: contributions to the administrative budgets for 1986-2003; the status of the Administrative Account for 2003; resources of the Special Account and the Bali Partnership Fund; the auditor�s report for the 2002 financial year; and proposed amendments to the Financial Rules to implement a biennial work programme and indicative administrative budget.