Newsletter ITTO

Issue # 1

March 2009

ITTO-CITES PROGRAM FOR IMPLEMENTING CITES LISTINGS OF TROPICAL TIMBER SPECIES NEWSLETTER

Primary Donor

Implementers

European Commission

This is the inaugural issue of the ITTO – CITES Program for Implementing CITES Listings of Tropical Timber Species newsletter. It will be published on a quarterly basis, and is mainly to be made available to our African, Asian and Latin American colleagues, sponsors and other individuals interested in the progress of the ITTO–CITES Program. This issue covers a summary of program activities during the last year.

Suggestions and contributions from project participants are essential to make future issues of this newsletter as informative and interesting as possible. Please send any correspondence to the relevant contact(s) listed on the last page.

Other Donors

EDITORIAL

In this issue: EDITORIAL

1

ITTO-CITES PROGRAM IN A NUTSHELL

2

ACTIVITIES

2

FUNDING

4

AGREEMENTS BETWEEN ITTO AND INSTITUTIONS OF RANGE STATES

5

ADVISORY COMMITTEE NEWS

6

EVENTS

6

UPCOMING EVENTS

7

MONITORING

7

VISIBILITY STRATEGY

8

EXTRANET

8

The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) together with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) are pleased to introduce the first issue of this newsletter. Attempts to list tropical timber species in the Appendices of CITES have accelerated in recent years. While there have been several successful listings of commercially important timber species, difficulties have been encountered by many countries in implementing the associated listing requirements to ensure sustainability of exports. The program reported on by this newsletter is providing assistance to countries throughout the tropics to (amongst others) design forest management plans, design targeted forest inventories, provide guidelines and case studies for making NDFs (non-detriment findings), and develop and disseminate tools for identification of these listed timber species.

This program plays an important role in helping to implement the recommendations of regional bodies like the Mahogany Working Group (MWG) and of other CITES bodies on mahogany and other tropical timber species such as ramin and afrormosia listed in CITES Appendix II. The program is managed by the ITTO Secretariat in collaboration with the CITES Secretariat and with the assistance of regional coordinators who work with forest authorities, the private sector, and other stakeholders to identify, implement and monitor activities. Program activities are guided by an Advisory Committee.

This quarterly newsletter will help to keep stakeholders informed about progress of the ITTO-CITES Program and thereby contribute to the development of forest regimes that promote and ensure sustainable forest management.

Ivan Tomaselli and Steve Johnson

ITTO-CITES PROGRAM FOR IMPLEMENTING CITES LISTINGS OF TROPICAL TIMBER SPECIES

ITTO-CITES PROGRAM IN A NUTSHELL

“Quantification of Dry and Wet Inland Gonystylus spp.

(Ramin), Aquilaria spp. (Agarwood) and Intsia spp. (Merbau) in Peninsular Malaysia”

The “ITTO – CITES Program for Implementing CITES Listings of Tropical Timber Species” aims to ensure that international trade in CITES-listed tropical timber species is consistent with their sustainable management and conservation. The specific objective of the program is to assist national authorities to meet the scientific, administrative and legal requirements for managing and regulating trade in Pericopsis elata (afrormosia) found in Central Africa, Swietenia macrophylla (bigleaf mahogany) found in Latin America, and Gonystylus spp. (ramin) found in SE Asia and, in particular, to develop guidance to ensure that utilization is not detrimental to the survival of these CITES-listed timber species. The main range states exporting significant volumes of these species covered by the program in Africa are Cameroon, Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo; in Asia Indonesia and Malaysia; and in Latin America Bolivia, Brazil and Peru.

The actitivity is on schedule, with sampling units in the dry and wet inland forests already identified based on the results of the Fourth National Forest Inventory that was conducted in Peninsular Malaysia from 2002-2004. A tender document has been prepared for the appointment of the contractor to undertake comprehensive assessment of the distribution of ramin, agarwood) and merbau in Peninsular Malaysia.

The direct beneficiaries of this Program are public authorities and private sector operators in the timber sector in the range States.

The indirect beneficiaries are other countries party to CITES that trade in these species, who will benefit through capacity building and awareness raising.

The program will benefit from funding under an EC grant until late 2010, following which ITTO will seek additional donor funding to continue it due to the strong interest shown by participating countries (see next section).

ACTIVITIES

“Generation of spatial distribution maps of Gonystylus bancanus (ramin) using hyperspectral technology and determination of sustainable level of harvest of ramin in production forests of Peninsular Malaysia” The activity is on schedule. Initial discussions have been held with potential hyperspectral data providers to acquire high spatial resolution multi-spectral data, although there has been a slight delay in this activity because of the year-end rainy season. At this stage, no further delays are foreseen in implementation.

“The Development of Gonystylus spp. (Ramin) Timber Monitoring System Using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Peninsular Malaysia” The activity is on schedule, with the RFID consultant already identified and appointed. Actions are underway to acquire computer peripherals and the rental of RFID peripherals, such as a satellite communication system.

“Developing DNA Database for Gonystylus bancanus in Sarawak” The activity has already identified nine targeted ramin populations in the peat swamp forests in Sarawak for sampling where leaf and/or inner bark samples will be collected for extraction of DNA. No technical barriers are foreseen at this stage of implementation.

Over 30 activity proposals in Africa (7), Asia (13) and Latin America (14) have been submitted to ITTO for consideration under the program. Of these, 9 activities in Asia, 4 in Africa and 4 in Latin America received funding from ITTO in the past 15 months. All of these are now underway. Some of the remaining activities are set to commence soon pending release of the pending installments of funding for the program. The remaining activities (and a second call for proposals) will be considered once additional donor interest is confirmed.

Information about each country activity (country, title, abstract, executing agency) can be found on the Program website www.stcp.com.br/itto-cites. The following section provides brief descriptions and progress reports (as of early 2009) for all activities that are currently underway.

Asia Malaysia “Non-detriment Findings Report on Gonystylus bancanus – A Quantitative Assessment of G. bancanus in two selected Permanent Forests of Sarawak” The activity has already identified two areas of peat swamp forest in the permanent forest estate where an assessment of the abundance of G. bancanus will be conducted, including its population distribution. The activity is on schedule and no technical difficulties are foreseen at this stage of its implementation.

Mature tree of Gonystylus bancanus in Indonesia.

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Indonesia “Improving Inventory Design to estimate Growing Stock of Ramin (Gonystylus bancanus) in Indonesia” The activity had its first Technical Advisory Committee meeting on 28 January 2009 and steps are being taken to source and appoint the Team Leader for the Activity as the original Team Leader from SEAMEO-BIOTROP (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization, Regional Center for Tropical Biology) is no longer available as planned. This is not seen to have any significant effect in implementing the activity as operations commenced in early March 2009 as planned.

natural forests and forest concessions, and assessment of P. elata in forest concessions. One of the experts in inventory has trained three teams of forest agents (5 agents/technicians each team) in inventory techniques and tools. Six forest management units (FMU) have been selected for pilot assessment. This commenced on 16 March 2009; at this stage, no technical barriers are foreseen in implementation. The Minister of Forestry and Wildlife has sent a circular letter to timber companies to cooperate in this activity.

“Assessing Silvicultural System on Ramin: Review on the Current Practice and Re-vitalization of existing Permanent Sample Plots” The activity is on schedule. The Team Leader and the National Expert have been appointed and collection of rules, regulations and concepts underlying the current silvicultural system for ramin has been undertaken by the National Expert. Initial collection of information through interviews has also commenced. No difficulties are foreseen at this stage of implementation.

“Exploratory Assessment on the Population Distribution and Potential Uses of Non-Gonystylus bancanus species in Indonesia” The activity is on schedule. The Team Leader has been identified and appointed. Actions have also been taken to carry out a literature review on G. bancanus and non-G. bancanus species found in Indonesia. At this stage, no technical barriers are foreseen in implementation.

“Identification of information gaps towards the SFM of Ramin and thematic programs to be included in the 2009 and 2010 Work Program of the ITTO-CITES Project” The Activity involved conducting a two-day national workshop which was successfully completed in Bogor, Indonesia on 21-22 January 2009. The thematic programs identified at the two-day workshop are: (i) the development of mass propagation techniques for ramin by utilizing ‘fogging nursery system’ and establishing hedge orchards; (ii) an assessment of the status of plant genetic resource conservation and genetic diversity of G. bancanus; (iii) a training workshop on the development/ implementation of non-detriment findings (NDF) for ramin; (iv) a workshop to disseminate and share the results and findings of the activities implemented in Indonesia with the other stakeholders in Indonesia and in the region; and (v) a national workshop on the strategy and action plan for the conservation and management of ramin based on the results and findings of all ITTO activities implemented in Indonesia.

Africa Cameroon “Management of Pericopsis elata in forest concessions” The activity is on schedule. The first Technical Advisory Committee meeting was held on 6 February 2009, the Team Leader, the Site Supervisor, and the National Experts (5) for the Activity have been appointed, and 7 MSc students have been recruited. The national experts are currently gathering field data on logging, transport, processing, domestic trade and export of P. elata products, biological and ecological aspects of P. elata in

Pericopsis elata plantation in the Bidou Forest Reserve Kribi, Cameroon.

“Management of Pericopsis elata in forest plantations” The first Technical Advisory Committee meeting was held on 6 February 2009 together with that of the previous activity.

Similarly, the Team Leader, the Site Supervisor, and the National Experts (2) for the Activity have been appointed. The national experts are currently gathering data to develop a simple management plan for Pericopsis elata plantations, as well as collecting data on aspects related to biology, ecology and silviculture of P. elata. Three MSc. students from the Department of forestry, University of Dschang, are currently working on different aspects of this activity as part of their degrees. No difficulties are foreseen at this stage of implementation.

Democratic Republic of the Congo “Training of different stakeholders in the verification of the CITES permits compliance and the use of ´CITESWOOD ID´ tool in the Democratic Republic of Congo” The Regional Coordinator (RC) has conducted a mission to Kinshasa in February to assist local authorities to finalize their annual operational plan and information on bank account needed for the first installment of funding for this activity; the Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism has finished all paperwork necessary to commence the activity, including the annual operational plan. The RC has also assisted the DRC authorities in preparing the workshop related to this activity, including the preparation of the agenda, budget, list of participants, and venue; 45 participants are being invited, including forest officers, personnel from the Congolese office of control, the Congolese office of customs, timber companies, and international organizations (WWF, GTZ). The workshop is scheduled for May or June, 2009. Terms of reference for the two experts responsible for training participants have been finalized: one national expert and one international expert (CITES personnel). No difficulties are foreseen at this stage.

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ITTO-CITES PROGRAM FOR IMPLEMENTING CITES LISTINGS OF TROPICAL TIMBER SPECIES

At the second, the International Expert Workshop on CITES NonDetriment Findings from 17-23 November 2008, he co-chaired the Trees Working Group that developed guidelines for Scientific Authorities making NDFs for timber and non-timber species.

“Ecology and silviculture of mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King) in the western Brazilian Amazon” The activity has just started in late March 2009. A progress report will be provided in the next newsletter.

Afrormosia Forest in the Bidou Forest Reserve, Kribi, Cameroon.

“Dissemination of the CITES convention and its implementation texts within the distribution area of Pericopsis elata (Afrormosia/Assamela) in the Democratic Republic of Congo” This activity aims to disseminate general information on CITES and its implementation tools. The expected outputs are (i) a training document on the CITES rules, (ii) a training document on the implementation tools of CITES, and (iii) a training workshop report. According to the proposal submitted to ITTO, this activity will commence in the second semester of 2009. A total of three local workshops will be carried out within the distribution area of Pericopsis elata in DRC to promote awareness among citizens about the CITES rules and their implementation.

Latin America

“Management of Hypsipyla grandella in Swietenia macrophylla King plantations in Pará and São Paulo States, Brazil” The activity has just started in late March 2009. A progress report will be provided in the next newsletter.

Peru “Evaluation of commercial stocks and strategy for the sustainable management of mahogany in Peru” Following donor consultations at the 43rd ITTC session, additional funding of $209,500 was provided from program funds to extend work carried out under PD 251/03 Rev.3 (F) on mahogany to cedrela in Peru. This work, which has informed the Peruvian government’s non-detriment findings for mahogany (CITES Appendix II) and controls for cedrela (CITES APPENDIX III) is now complete and the final report will be presented to the ITTC at its 45th session in November 2009.

Brazil “Bigleaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) in the Brazilian Amazon: long-term studies of population dynamics and regeneration ecology towards sustainable forest management” The activity’s objective is to establish a biological foundation for sustainable forest management systems for mahogany based on long-term studies of growth, reproduction, and regeneration by natural populations in primary and logged forests. Initial activities included successful re-censusing of mahogany populations at two forest field sites in southeast Pará ranging in size from 650 to 2100 hectares, and at one forest field site in the western state of Acre in an area of 685 hectares. At the principal site in southeast Pará (Marajoara), more than 350 adult mahogany trees were recensused for survivorship, diameter growth, and fruit production, continuing annual studies begun in 1997. Several thousand naturally occurring and experimentally outplanted seedlings at Marajoara were also recensused for survivorship and growth, extending annual studies conducted since 1995. At a second site in southeast Pará, 70 adult mahogany trees were recensused, extending demographic studies begun in 1997. At the Acre site, survival and growth of a population of 80 adult mahogany trees monitored since 2001 was recorded, as well as the performance of seedlings out-planted into treated logging gaps in 2002.

One of this activity’s co-investigators, James Grogan, attended two workshops in Cancún, Mexico focused on ITTO-CITES activities. At the first, the 4th Mahogany Working Group (MWG) meeting from 13-15 November 2008, he described objectives and activities associated with the ITTO-CITES Timber Project grant.

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Mature Mahogany tree in Brazil.

FUNDING Donors The European Commission is providing 2.4 million euros for program implementation, with over US$ 750,000 dollars provided from the other donors listed on the cover page. The USA has indicated an on-going interest in continuing to provide funds to this program. ITTO will encourage other donors to do so as well since requests for support under the program now exceed available resources. Approval of any proposals received in 20092010 will therefore contingent on additional support from donors.

AGREEMENTS BETWEEN ITTO AND INSTITUTIONS OF RANGE STATES SIGNED MOUs Much activity has been going on in the last few months in the way of finalizing agreements of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between ITTO and various academic and governmental institutions in Africa, Asia and Latin America. ITTO has been collaborating with some of these institutions for years, and this Program is another way of strengthening the relationships with them.

ITTO has signed agreements with the following institutions since program inception:

Brazil FUNPEA (Foundation for Supporting Research, Extension and Teaching in Agrarian Sciences/ Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa, Ensino e Extensão ) – 2 Activities IFT (Tropical Forest Institute/Instituto Florestal Tropical) – 1 Activity

Cameroon ANAFOR (National Agency for the Support to Forestry Development/ Agence Nationale d’Appui au Développement des Forêts) – 2 Activities

Democratic Republic of the Congo CITES DRC (Direction des Ressources Fauniques et Chasse /Directorate of Fauna Resources and Hunting) – 2 Activities

Indonesia SEAMEO-BIOTROP (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization, Regional Center for Tropical Biology) – 1 activity CFNCRD (Center for Forest and Nature Conservation Research and Development) of FORDA (Forestry Research and Development Agency) – 3 Activities

Malaysia Forest Department Sarawak and Sarawak Forestry Corporation – 2 Activities FDPM (Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia) – 2 Activities FRIM (Forest Research Institute Malaysia) – 1 Activities

MOUs TO BE SIGNED Four more MOUs are to be signed soon with the following institutions. These MOUs are pending the release of program funding by the primary donor.

Bolivia Vice Ministry of Biodiversity, Forest Resources and Environment/ Viceministerio de Biodiversidad, Recursos Forestales y Medio Ambiente – 2 Activities

Brazil IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for Environment and the Natural Resources /Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis) – 2 Activities

Peru UNALM (La Molina National Agrarian University/ Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina) – 3 Activities

Republic of Congo MINFE (Ministry of Forest Economy and Environment/ Ministère de l’Economie Forestière) – 1 Activity

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ITTO-CITES PROGRAM FOR IMPLEMENTING CITES LISTINGS OF TROPICAL TIMBER SPECIES

ADVISORY COMMITTEE NEWS Advisory Committee Meeting in Yokohama The first program Advisory Committee (AC) Meeting was held at the ITTO Headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, on 31st October 2008. The role of the AC is to review progress, assess gaps and to provide guidance to regional coordinators for the implementation of existing/development of new activity proposals.

AC members include representatives of ITTO/CITES secretariats, government representatives of program donors and target countries as well as representatives of ITTO’s trade and civil society advisory groups. The AC recommended that:

• Flexibility should be allowed with respect to activity extensions and contract duration covered by the EC grant;

First Latin America ITTO-CITES Program and 4th MWG Workshop in Cancun, Mexico, November 2008.

• Flexibility should be allowed with respect to the scope of proposals allowed under the program to include Appendix 3listed and non-timber listed tropical tree species;

• Donor and ITTO monitoring missions to countries should be coordinated/synchronized;

• The program website and extranet should be further developed

and maintained in order to provide accurate and up-to-date program information to all stakeholders;

• Flexibility should be allowed with respect to the overall program budget, particularly with regard to re-allocating funds between budget lines of the EC grant in order to best meet program objectives;

• Activity proposals over $150,000 should be considered given funding availability, or channeled through ITTO’s regular program cycle; and

• It should meet at least annually, with its next meeting to be held in mid-2009.

EVENTS

Mahogany Working Group/ ITTOITTO-CITES Program Meeting in Cancun The Fourth Meeting of the MWG and the First Latin-American Workshop of the ITTO-CITES Program for Implementing CITES Listings of Tropical Timber Species for the range States of mahogany was held on November 13-15, 2008. This was a joint workshop between the MWG and the ITTO-CITES Program. The primary objective was to promote capacity development, to provide stakeholders awareness of global, regional and national activities related to international trade in mahogany consistent with their sustainable management and conservation, to create a basis for further cooperation and research, and share information on their best practices on making NDFs for Swietenia macrophylla. The workshop was devised to assist policy-makers from relevant government agencies, national CITES authorities, as well as private sector operators in the timber sector in the range states and NDF scientists. The workshop involved over 60 participants from all the main range states in Central and South America as well as some importing countries, representatives of NGOs, the timber trade sector, and international organizations. The output of the workshop served as input to the CITES Plants Committee Meeting held on 17-21 March in Argentina.

Kribi Meeting ITTO and the CITES secretariat convened a regional workshop in Kribi, Cameroon on 2-4 April 2008, to develop a participatory action plan to ensure that international trade in Afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) is consistent with its sustainable management and conservation in Africa. Afrormosia is listed in CITES Appendix II. The workshop involved over 30 participants from all the main range states in Central and West Africa as well as importing countries. Representatives of NGOs, timber trade interests and international organizations also participated.

The action plan agreed by the workshop included five thematic areas: i) building capacity of exporting and importing countries on implementation of CITES; ii) building capacity of exporting and importing countries to manage P. elata sustainably; iii) improving the ecological and silvicultural knowledge of P. elata; iv) promotion of support programs for regeneration of P. elata; and v) governance and marketing issues relevant to P. elata.

The report of the workshop is available on the program website.

First Advisory Meetting (ANAFOR), Yaoundé, Cameroon.

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International Expert Meeting on NDF's in Cancun The 4th MWG meeting and the international meeting on NDF's were held back-to-back in Cancun, Mexico from November 1721st, 2008. ITTO provided financial support for both meetings from program funds, and other budgetary resources available for CITES support. The main aim of the workshop was to provide Parties with elements that enhance their understanding of what NDFs are and how they can be formulated. The different approaches and paths followed by Scientific Authorities along the NDF decision-making process were presented through case studies which were analyzed and summarized, taking into account the Parties’ experiences. The regional Coordinator for Africa submitted a case study on African teak (Pericopsis elata) in Cameroon, which was discussed in the Trees Working Groups (TWG). In addition, the Latin American Coordinator´s assistant participated in the TWG as a forest law specialist. The TWG proposed a common guideline on what a NDF is for timber and medicinal plants and a synthesis of the most relevant aspects of NDF development to be considered by Scientific Authorities, on a voluntary basis. Reports of the Mexico meetings of the MWG and on NDFs for tree species are available on the CITES and program websites.

Training Workshop on Ramin Wood Identification in Vietnam The Regional Project Coordinator for Asia represented ITTO at the “Training Workshop on Ramin Wood Identification in Vietnam”

at the invitation of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, which was held in Hanoi, Vietnam on 29-30 September 2008. This training workshop was held in response to one of the recommendations made at the 2007 “ITTO Expert Meeting on the Effective Implementation of the Inclusion of Ramin (Gonystylus spp.) in Appendix II of CITES”, with regard to the inability of enforcement officers to identify ramin species and the need to disseminate practical tools for identifying this species.

International Merbau Workshop The Regional Project Coordinator for Asia also represented ITTO at the “International Merbau Workshop: Sustainable Management of Merbau (Intsia spp.) for Trade” at the invitation of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, held in Singapore on 17-18 November 2008, where he presented a paper entitled “ITTO Support in the Management and Conservation of CITE-listed Species in Southeast Asia.” The objectives of the International Workshop were to document and raise awareness of the issues and challenges related to th e s us t ain a b l e m an ag em en t of merbau and options for managing its trade, as well as to formulate a forward looking action plan.

National Workshop in Bogor, Indonesia, January 2009.

UPCOMING EVENTS Peru Meeting on Conversion Factors

CITES Plants Committee Meeting

The II Latin America Workshop of the ITTO-CITES Program for Implementing CITES Listings of Tropical Timber Species: Experiences in Application of Yield Coefficients for Control and Monitoring of Timber Activity will be held on April 21-23, 2009, in Lima, Peru. The objective of this workshop is to share experiences in converting from log to sawn volume and in taking into account log defects to improve management and control of CITES-listed timber species in Latin America (where NDF quotas are often set in terms of sawnwood volumes). The workshop was proposed by ITTO following submission of several related activity proposals on this theme, with a view to developing common approaches and methodologies that take account of the significant variability in conversion factors between and within countries.

The CITES Plants Committee Meeting took place from 17-21 March 2009, in Buenos Aires Argentina. Amongst relevant topics, it considered the results of the MWG and NDF meetings mentioned above. The report of the meeting is on the CITES website (www.cites.org).

CITES Standing Committee Meeting The 58th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee is scheduled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, 6-10 July. However, since the next CITES COP meeting (scheduled for January in Qatar) has been postponed, there may be some delay in the Standing Committee meeting too. Please check the CITES website for details.

MONITORING EC Monitoring to Africa The Regional Project Coordinator for Africa worked with the EC Independent Monitor, Mr. Pascal Diez, to facilitate his visit to Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of Congo, from 09 to 14 October 2008. In Cameroon, the monitor visited the CITES Management (Forest Administration) and Scientific Authority (ANAFOR), the Association of Timber and Forest Industries; and the Institute for Agricultural research and Rural Development (IRAD). During the visits, the monitor invited

governments to submit activities to ITTO since there are funds available under the ITTO-CITES program. The Monitor was pleased to see that several activities had been developed in Africa. Nevertheless, some concerns were raised, such as the visibility of the EC, budget management, duration of the activities, communication between various responsible agencies in countries, etc. These concerns have been considered by ITTO, which has taken necessary actions to address them.

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ITTO-CITES PROGRAM FOR IMPLEMENTING CITES LISTINGS OF TROPICAL TIMBER SPECIES

EC Monitoring to Asia

Upcoming MidMid-term Evaluation/EC Monitoring Mission

The Regional Project Coordinator for Asia accompanied the EC Independent Monitor, Ms. Ann Martin, to visit the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Malaysia (NRE) and the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) on 24 September 2008, as well as to the Ministry of Forestry Indonesia from 25-26 September 2008. Overall the EC Independent Monitor was impressed with the in-depth knowledge of the officials she met, especially on the various aspects required to manage, conserve and protect ramin species in Malaysia and Indonesia so as to ensure its sustainability, as well as the preparation and readiness of the executing and implementing agencies in both countries to implement the approved activities under the ITTO-CITES Program.

ITTO will undertake a mid-term evaluation of program progress in the second half of 2009. The EC may also undertake a follow-up monitoring mission which may include visits to Latin America and Africa. The optimal time to visit field activities in Brazil would be from August-October when the field crews will be in camp. Since there are currently three activities underway and another about to start, the visits will be combined and coordinated to ensure the best season to conduct field visits. In addition to external monitoring, the regional coordinators undertake on-going real time monitoring of all activities, including at least one visit to each activity site every 6 months.

VISIBILITY STRATEGY

EXTRANET

A program webs ite has been created to disseminat e countries´ activities, outputs and findings, and to serve as a means of providing visibility for the primary donor. Th e website has been updated following the rec ommendations of the AC meeting. All program outputs, such as the report of the regional afrormosia meeting are available on th e website. All pres entations made by ITTO on the program ar e als o inc lud ed.

Th e website is onlin e at http://www.stcp.com.br/itto-cites. The site has been linked to the ITTO homepage, under the “ITTO at W ork” heading (www.itto.int). As part of the visibility strategy, this newsletter has been produced in order to keep th e stak eholders updated.

The Regional Coordinator for Latin America (whose role includes liaison and coordination with the other regional coordinators) has established a proprietary extranet system to improve the communication among the regional coordinators.. Both the African and Asian regional coordinators are now consulting regularly with the Latin American coordinator to ensure both the program website and information available on the extranet is up-to-date and to share other information. The extranet allows access to all program documentation (full activity proposals, correspondence, EC grant agreement and visibility guidelines, etc.) to the regional coordinators, ITTO and CITES. The role of the Latin American coordinator in overall coordination will also increase now that many activities are moving into the implementation phase in all three regions.

Pericopsis elata nursery in Minsourou, Cameroon.

Dear Reader, you can download Newsletter from http://www.stcp.com.br/itto-cites or www.itto.int. Do write and tell us what you think of our newsletter. Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve? Please write to us using the contact details provided on this page.

Contacts: ITTO - Steven Johnson, General Coordinator - johnson@itto.or.jp CITES - Milena Sosa Schimdt - milena.schmidt@cites.org Regional Coordinator for Latin America & General Coordinator - Ivan Tomaselli - itomaselli@stcp.com.br Regional Coordinator for Africa - Jean Lagarde Betti - betlagarde@yahoo.fr Regional Coordinator for Asia -Thang Hooi Chiew - hcthang@streamyx.com Deputy Regional Coordinator for Latin America - Sofia R. Hirakuri - sofia@stcp.com.br

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