International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA)

The beginnings of the ITTA date to 1966, when the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) proposed the establishment of a tropical timber bureau. By 1973, the emphasis had broadened from market requirements and the availability of tropical timbers to include forest management considerations. Intergovernmental meetings under UNCTAD failed to reach agreement in 1978. A second round of negotiations in Geneva involving 50 countries in 1982 was successful. Here, against the backdrop of two seasons of dramatic fluctuations in supply of tropical timbers on European markets, Japan urged the creation of a commodity agreement to regulate global trade in tropical timber products.

Finally signed in 1983, the ITTA combined commodity trade and nontimber products as well as noncommercial concerns in a single agreement. It was intended to simultaneously serve as an agent of forest conservation by assisting in the creation of a viable forest industry and forest sector, thus restricting the major cause of tropical deforestation—clearance of land for agriculture. The ITTA was serviced by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), based in Yokohama, Japan.

A new ITTA signed in 1994 came into force in 1997. Membership was extended to include most of the tropical timber producing and importing countries, including Brazil. Now the ITTO broadened its approach to sustainable forestry management to include social forestry and biodiversity considerations. A detailed study was also made of Sarawak. A third ITTA involving 180 countries was signed in January 2006 to be effective for 2008–17.

Environmental groups initially were critical of the ITTA and the ITTO, pointing to insecure funding and slow progress. They also recognized that significant producers and consumers were not members of the ITTA, which detracted from its effectiveness. To some extent this situation no longer applies. Environmentalists regarded the ITTO as Asian dominated even though much of the funding came from grants from the governments of Switzerland, the United States, and Japan. Furthermore, they suggested that many tropical timber-producing countries were not vigorously pressing for sustainable use of tropical forests. Having participated in earlier ITTO council meetings, the World Wildlife Fund withdrew from the 1994 session. Although the ITTO has been quite active in promoting sustainable forest management and developed a number of manuals and protocols, it cannot compel member countries to adopt these at a national level. Even so, the ITTA, by its enduring existence and global reach, may be poised to exert greater influence on the sustainable management of tropical forests, particularly in terms of assisting states to confront illegal harvesting and improve governance.