25 years of policy and practice
• Publication marks ITTO ’s
25th anniversary – and
International Year of Forests
• Presents 25 success stories –
projects and activities
25 years of policy and practice
• Not the full extent of ITTO’s
success or necessarily its
most successful endeavours
• Intended to illustrate, through
case studies, the
Organization’s 25-year story
and to show impact at local to
global scale
• Draws on ex-post evaluations and stakeholder
testimony for evidence of success
ITTO: influential out of all proportion to
its size
• Developed international
norms now reflected in
national policies and practices
• Brought transparency to
timber trade
• A leading advocate of SFM
• Encouraged community
development and reforms in
governance and forest law
enforcement
ITTO: influential out of all proportion to
its size
• Provided constructive
environment in which countries
discuss issues and resolve
differences amicably
• Flexible funding model
stimulates wide range of
partnerships and capacitybuilding and encourages local
ownership of outcomes
ITTO: influential out of all proportion to
its size
• Striking how so much has been
achieved at relatively low cost
• Many projects that cost much
less than US$1 million have
had far-reaching effects well
beyond immediate area of
influence
Example 1: Criteria and indicators
• When ITTO came
into being in 1986
there were virtually
no international
policies on forest
management
• C&I arguably
ITTO’s most
important
pioneering work
Example 1: Criteria and indicators (cont’d)
• C&I now used
worldwide
• ITTO has trained
well over 1000
key tropicalforest decisionmakers and
stakeholders in
their use
Example 1: Criteria and indicators (cont’d)
• C&I used in ITTO’s global
assessment of status of
tropical forest
management
• 2010 assessment
showed increase in area
under sustainable
management and
improvement in quality of
reporting
Example 1: Criteria and indicators (cont’d)
“C&I are perhaps the greatest
innovation to emerge in the
context of the paradigm shift
from sustained-yield forestry to
managing forests as
ecosystems for multiple
economic, social and
environmental benefits ...
Inspired by ITTO’s early
leadership, the impact of C&I
has been far-reaching.”
Stephanie Caswell, former US State
Department official and key player in
ITTO and Montreal C&I processes
Example 2: Condor, Ecuador-Peru
• ITTO has had
considerable
success in
promoting
transboundary
reconciliation and
conservation
• The TBCA between Ecuador and Peru has
helped to foster peace over a disputed region,
empowered and reunited communities, and
improved conservation outcomes
Example 2: Condor, Ecuador-Peru (cont’d)
In Ecuador:
• New protected areas
created (31 000 ha)
• 47 Shuar communities merged collective
lands into single territory (200 000 ha), which
they now govern for conservation and
sustainable use
• Fund created in exchange for conservation,
helping to finance development processes
Example 2: Condor, Ecuador-Peru (cont’d)
In Peru:
• national park
(88 500 ha)
created
• Wampis
communities
gained legal
control over their
lands (100 000
ha)
Example 2: Condor, Ecuador-Peru (cont’d)
Overall:
• Indicators (e.g. on
community health)
improving
• Decreased
deforestation, and
hunting/fishing more
sustainable
• Cross-border
communities reunited
Example 2: Condor, Ecuador-Peru (cont’d)
“Three years after project
completion, the Shuar Arutam
people are maintaining the
governance model established
during the project [and
pursuing] the sound
management and use of the
tropical forest resources in the
greater part of the 47
communities involved.”
Santiago Kingman, Fundación
Natura
Example 2: Condor, Ecuador-Peru (cont’d)
“There is no doubt that what
the projects did ... was correct;
now, even if international
support ceases, we are going
to maintain our objectives.
Young people are now
involved in this government.
They listen eagerly to the
experience of the founders,
who are watching constantly
the direction of their territory,
its forests and its people.”
Bosco Santiak, Shuar leader
Example 3: Antimary Forest, Brazil
• Long-running ITTO
project in former rubber
estate
• Supported Government
of Acre’s sustainable
forest development
model and local rubbertapper communities
Example 3: Antimary Forest, Brazil (cont’d)
Project helped:
• Resolve land-tenure
issues
• Improve social services
and infrastructure
• Introduce industrial
techniques for valueadding to NTFPs
• Implement SFM, including for timber
Example 3: Antimary Forest, Brazil (cont’d)
“The Antimary State Forest
project shows that it is
possible to put into place, in a
remote forest, a sustainable
forest management regime. ...
The Antimary project is a
wonderful example of how a
project that has been wellconceived and funded by
ITTO can be turned into
broader public policy, because
it has happened in Acre state.”
Senator Jorge Viana, former
governor of Acre
Example 4: CITES-listed species
ITTO and CITES
Secretariat commenced
joint activity in 2007 to
ensure that international
trade in CITES-listed
tropical timber species
consistent with their
sustainable management
and conservation
Example 4: CITES-listed species
Joint activity between ITTO
and CITES Secretariat
commenced in 2007 to
assisting countries to meet
requirements for managing
and regulating trade in
Pericopsis elata
(afrormosia), Swietenia
macrophylla (bigleaf
mahogany), and
Gonystylus species (ramin)
Example 4: CITES-listed species (cont’d)
Program has helped:
• Range states to carry out
non-detriment findings
and establish export
quotas
• Build capacity for wood
ID, timber-tracking and
conversion factors
• Facilitate recommencement of trade in
afromosia and Prunus africanus following
trade suspensions
Example 4: CITES-listed species (cont’d)
“The ITTO–CITES program is a
leading example of highly
effective … cooperation between
an organization with an
implementation mandate and a
convention secretariat. As a
direct result of this close
cooperation, we have
strengthened capacity in eight of
the main exporting countries
of timber products to more
effectively implement CITES.”
John Scanlon, Secretary General, CITES Secretariat
Example 5: Information in Philippines
A series of three
ITTO projects
have greatly
improved the
quality of
information in the
Philippines forest
sector
Example 5: Information in Philippines
(cont’d)
• One project developed
a forest information
system (FIS) designed
to improve the
collection, organization
and analysis of forestry
data
• A second identified bottlenecks in the flow of
timber from source to end-user
• A third expanded the FIS nation-wide
Example 5: Information in Philippines
(cont’d)
“A fully operational FIS is now in place nationally, and
the quality of data has improved considerably.”
Ex-post evaluation
“The FIS is a big help to our forestry planning and has
supported us in pursuing some of our forestry
legislative reform agenda.”
Neria A. Andin, Director, Forest Management Bureau, DENR
“The FIS-GIS [is] providing a more trustworthy data
reference for better decision-making in the forestry
sector and is currently being updated and built up.”
Joselin Marcus E. Fragada, Regional Executive Director,
DENR—Bicol Region
Example 6: Fellowships
The ITTO
Fellowship
Programme has
awarded about
US $6.6 million
to more than
1100 people
from diverse
backgrounds
Example 6: Fellowships (cont’d)
A 2010 survey of fellows found that:
• All fellowships
conducted with
clear objectives
aligned with
ITTO’s priorities
• Fellows have
continued to
promote SFM
after completing
their fellowships
Example 6: Fellowships (cont’d)
A 2010 survey of fellows found that:
• More than 80% of
returning fellows
increased productivity
and performance,
developed new
programs or innovations,
and applied their new
knowledge and skills to
influence national
policies
Example 6: Fellowships (cont’d)
“The ITTO fellowship gave me a chance to pursue the
career that I passionately love.”
Myralyn Abasolo, Philippines
“My ITTO fellowship is having longer-term impacts on
my professional career. I am spending more time
teaching at university and sharing international
perspectives on conservation. I have also assumed a
substantial role in a conservation research network.”
Dr Mochamad Indrawan, Indonesia
“My PhD program might have been difficult to complete
without the fellowship.”
Stephen Tekpetey, Ghana
Example 7: Lanjak-Entimau
Long-running
project has:
• Promoted the
conservation of
4000 orangutan
• Increased
knowledge of
region’s biodiversity
• Introduced alternative livelihood strategies to
local communities, reducing dependence on
sanctuary resources
Example 7: Lanjak-Entimau (cont’d)
Increasingly, members of local communities
volunteering as rangers, which has:
• Increased
management of
protected area
• Improved law
enforcement
• Reduced pressure
on biodiversity
Example 7: Lanjak-Entimau (cont’d)
Stemming from work
carried out under the
project, a new unit has
been created within
Sarawak Forest
Department to ensure
sustainability of
initiatives such as the
Lanjak-Entimau
Wildlife Sanctuary
Example 7: Lanjak-Entimau (cont’d)
“Thank you for making an improvement to our
livelihood. It is now easier to earn a living. There
is no more need for us to go into the rivers to fish
during the Gawai (harvest) festivals. The fish in
the rivers have also recovered.”
Anthony Bau, longhouse headman
“Our family is learning to
become more enterprising,
and we have been earning
additional income from the
fruits we have planted.”
Gerasi ak. Kapi, longhouse
headman
Example 7: Lanjak-Entimau (cont’d)
“Working with the local communities of the LanjakEntimau Wildlife Sanctuary has taught us that the local
communities need not be a hindrance to biodiversity
conservation. Indeed, the local people are in a better
position to help the government to protect the forest
and its resources because they are on the ground.
This is one of the most important lessons that we have
learnt from Lanjak-Entimau.”
YAB Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, Sarawak Chief
Minister
Example 8: Wildlife in concessions (cont’d)
ITTO project in a concession in northern Congo
facilitated a partnership between private sector,
conservation NGO and government to:
• Work with
communities
to reduce
local
dependence
on bush meat
• Helped villagers organize to manage hunting
grounds
Example 8: Wildlife in concessions (cont’d)
• Monitor biodiversity
in the concession
• Ensure fauna
conservation in
concession
Example 8: Wildlife in concessions (cont’d)
The success of the model has led to its
adoption in other forest concessions.
“This initiative is the first
effective example of the
integration of fauna
conservation and
management in forest
concessions in Central
Africa.”
Ex-post evaluation
Hard copies of
25 success stories will
be available at the 47th
session of the
International Tropical
Timber Council in
November [and will be
available on request to
participants at today’s
event]
Thank you!
Photo acknowledgements
Juergen Blaser, Forest Management Bureau, Ruben Guevara, ITTO
fellows, Steve Johnson, Nicholas Kingman, Hwan Ok Ma, Eva
Mueller, WWF Indonesia