Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

where did it come from? 153International Tropical Timber OrganizationInitial efforts at the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO),such as the establishment of a Market Information Service to assisttrade monitoring, appear to be promising for cooperation in the trackingof forest products. It is hoped that the results from these types oftechnical capacity-building initiatives will feed into developing a consensusamong members and overcome the previous inability to reachan accord on illegal logging.The ITTO also announced its intention to promote sustainabletimber trade. A mid-term review estimated the combined cost ofinstitutional strengthening and capacity building as $22.5 billion(Adams 1997). Estimates may come out much lower, however, ifthe exercise concentrates on the relatively few major players in theglobal marketplace. There are only six big producers—Bolivia,Brazil, Cameroon, Gabon, Indonesia, and Malaysia, which togetheraccount for 60–80 percent of world markets. Overall, some 70–100concession holders harvest around 25–30 percent of all the tropicaltimber entering the global market. Concentrating financial and technicalassistance and monitoring on these concessions could reap earlyrewards.That said, the ITTO—an organization funded by timber tradingcountries—is often used as a shield by producers trying to fend offmore onerous initiatives such as Forest Stewardship Council certificationand, possibly, international efforts to curb illegal logging. Furthermore,critics argue that the tropical timber industry is far better atnegotiating solutions to problems of illegal logging than implementingany of the resultant recommendations.Forest Stewardship CouncilThe Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an independent, nonprofit,and nongovernmental organization that administers the first and mostauthoritative forest-product certification scheme. It has developedglobal standards for forest management through consultation withstakeholders from social, economic, and environmental sectors.Forest certification is the process whereby forestry operations aremeasured against the FSC’s 10 principles and 56 criteria for goodforest management. Independent, FSC-accredited certification bodiesconduct thorough assessments according to the criteria requested bylandowners. If the forests conform with FSC standards, a certificateis issued that allows the producer to sell FSC-certified wood and touse the FSC logo on its products. An award of a certificate is predicatedon adherence to all applicable laws of the country, including