| European
Tropical Forest Research Network |
YOKOHAMA, JAPAN, 3 November 2001: ITTO's course has been charted for the next five years under the new 'Yokohama Action Plan', announced today by the International Tropical Timber Council.
The Plan, which spans 2002-2006, was developed after wide consultation between Member governments, environmental non-governmental organizations, the timber trade and industry, and other international organizations. Its aim is to accelerate progress towards achieving exports of tropical timber and timber products from sustainably managed sources and it sets six major goals.
According to the Council Chair, Dr. Josefina Takahashi, the new Action Plan reflects the broad scope of the Organization. "We have set a challenging agenda," she said. "But achieving sustainable tropical forest management and a sustainable timber trade requires nothing less". According to Dr. Takahashi, member countries will need to increase their efforts if they are to make more rapid progress.
"Producer members will need to work harder to raise their capacity to manage their forests sustainably and to develop sustainable and profitable forest industries," she said. "Consumer members will need to increase their support for these efforts, both through direct assistance and through facilitating the trade of timber from sustainable sources. And the Organization itself will need to be highly energetic if it is to maintain its high standards in the face of what will undoubtedly be an increased workload".
For more
information contact:
Mr. Collins Ahadome, ITTO Secretariat; itto@itto.or.jp
THE NETWORK FOR NATURAL GUMS AND RESINS IN AFRICA (NGARA)
Natural gums and resins are among dryland resources in Sub-Saharan Africa that contribute to improved livelihoods of local communities in terms of food security, income generation and foreign exchange earnings. These resources also contribute to the amelioration of the environment. The increasing health consciousness among consumers internationally also favours their increased use.
The development of these resources and commodities is key to sustainable management and development of the drylands, which, due to harsh environmental conditions, have fewer options. However, irregularity of supply of these commodities accompanied by widely fluctuating prices and variable product quality has resulted in unfavorable long-term effects on the demand of these commodities. A coordinated strategy is therefore needed among producing countries and partners to take advantage of available opportunities and address the constraints.
Various initiatives have been undertaken since the mid nineties on how the plant gums and resins sector could be developed to enhance food security, rural development and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. One such initiative was the organisation of an inaugural workshop for producing countries and partners held in October 1997 in Nairobi, Kenya during which issues on the conservation, management and utilisation of plant gums, resins and essential oils were discussed and concrete recommendations made. A key recommendation of that workshop was the creation of a regional network to enable countries develop their own system of sustainable production, marketing and improvement of their products to international standards. A follow-up workshop was held in May, 2000 in Nairobi, Kenya where the Network for Natural Gums and Resins in Africa (NGARA) was established.
NGARA's mission is to assist in formulating a co-ordinated strategy for African producing countries and partners in the sustainable development of their natural gum and resin resources for improving rural livelihoods and environmental conservation. Its goal is to position African producer countries and partners as major global players in the production, processing and marketing of natural gums and resins. The network's major objectives are:
Activities include creation of relevant databases, information dissemination and promotional activities; training and capacity building; and research and technology development.
NGARA was initially established with a membership of ten countries from sub-Saharan Africa which produce plant gums and resins (those who participated in the Nairobi workshop of May 2000). However, membership is by application from countries in sub-Saharan Africa which produce the commodities and organizations involved in the development of the resources and/or commodities.
The network has a steering committee comprising: representatives from three focal points (West and Central Africa, Eastern Africa and Southern Africa), experts on marketing and quality control and international observers (represented by FAO and the Association for the International Development of Natural Gums [AIDGUM]). Each member country is represented by a national coordinator. The day-to-day activities are handled by a regional secretariat based at the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), Nairobi, Kenya. Currently, NGARA is working on a regional Project for member countries named "The Acacia operation " to be financed through FAO. The project's goal is to strengthen NGARA's structures for effective development of the gums and resins sub-sector among member countries in the framework of combating desertification. This represents just one of the initial activities.
For more
information contact
The NGARA Secretariat, P. O. Box 30241, Nairobi, Kenya.
Tel: 254 154 32353, Fax: 254 154 32844
Email: kefri@wananchi.com or kefri@arcc.or.ke
PROTA FIRST INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP / PREMIER ATELIER INTERNATIONAL
23-25 September 2002, Nairobi, Kenya
First
Announcement
Organizer: PROTA Programme, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
PROTA will be the subject of an International Workshop to review the progress made, and to reach international consensus on the structure,organization, activities, and finances of the First Implementation Phase 2003-2007.
The workshop is a forum for scientists, policy-makers and donors, in order to highlight the importance of the Plant Resources of Tropical Africa through Commodity Group Reports, Country Reports and Plant Resources Reports; to review the progress made in the Phase 2000-2002 towards international cooperation, the documentation and information system, and the publication of the monographs; to make the recommendations for the Implementation Phase 2003-2012 on all aspects of the programme including organization, manpower, finances, publication policy and the databank.
Programme outline
Section
1:
General Invited papers on the many facets of the PROTA programme; its relation
with new trends in agricultural, silvicultural and environmental policies
and new developments in information technology
Section 2:
Commodity Group Reports Invited papers on general aspects of a number of Commodity
Groups, like 'Cereals and Pulses', 'Vegetables','Timbers','Auxiliary plants'
and 'Medicinal plants'.
Section 3:
Country Reports Invited papers on the plant resources of the various parts
of Tropical Africa,, based on the documentation work of the PROTA Regional
and Country offices.
Section 4:
Plant Resources Reports Contributed papers (Posters) on subgroups of plant
resources, in particular treatment of the ecology, agronomy/management, uses
and improvement of neglected and potentially important species.
Section 5:
Phase 2003-2012 Working Groups and Plenary discussions on organization, financial
aspects, publication policy and databank. Formulation of recommendations
Excursion
Half-day field-trip to interesting projects on plant resources in the surroundings
of Nairobi
Preregistration
In view of the Workshop objectives, attendance will be limited to a maximum
of 150 participants, to allow a close interaction between the participants
from research and the public sector. Persons wishing to participate in the
Workshop, please complete the Preregistration Form, and return it to the Secretariat
PROTA FIRST INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP.Some financial assistance may be available
for delegates from institutions in Tropical Africa.
Contributed
papers
Authors of contributed papers (Section 4) should enclose an abstract of 200
words or less with the Preregistration Form. Authors of accepted papers will
be invited to display the paper in a Poster Session and to submit a one-page
summary for publication in the Workshop Proceedings
Second
announcement
Details on venue, programme and logistics will be communicated in the Second
Announcement, scheduled for March 2002
AIRMAIL
TO:
Secretariat, Prota First International Workshop, c/o ICRAF
P.O. Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya.
Email: prota@pros.dpw.wag-ur.nl
http://www.prota.org
FERN REPORT: BEHIND THE LOGO: AN ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL ASSESSMENT OF FOREST CERTIFICATION SCHEMES
FERN has produced a report based on case studies by WWF France, Taiga consulting, Taiga Rescue Network, Robin Wood, NRDC, FERN, Finnish Nature League and Greenpeace International. The report compares the four biggest forest certification schemes - the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Pan-European Forest Certification (PEFC), the Canadian Standards Association's Sustainable Forest Management Standard (CSA) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and analyses strengths and flaws of each scheme.
FERN aims to provide companies, governments and NGOs with the facts needed for informed decision-making. FERN concludes that the Forest Stewardship Council is currently the only independent and credible certification scheme on the market, though it is also not perfect.
The report
is available from FERN at Fosseway Business Centre 1C, Stratford Road Moreton-in-Marsh
UK - GL 56 9NQ
Tel: +44 1608 652 895, Fax: +44 1608 652 878
sara@gn.apc.org
http://www.fern.org
AVAILABILITY OF FOREST SEEDS ON THE INTERNET
In order to offer producers and consumers of forest seeds a useful and powerful instrument CATIE has established a database of forest seeds to facilitate commercialisation, exchange and consultation. The project was started in 1998 with the collaboration of the CATIE's Banco de Semillas Forestales and the Unidad de Ínformatica.
The database contains detailed information on each distributed forestry or agroforestry species and provides data of the companies involved in the distribution of the seeds. The database can be assessed in two ways:
The database
also provides access to other databases of forest seeds. To date, information
is available on more than 10 other databases and companies providing data
on more than 100 species. The information is updated directly by the users
on the Internet. All people interested, both consumer and producer of forest
seeds, are invited to benefit from this service. You may visit the database
through the following link:
www.catie.ac.cr/proyectos/prosefor/base/semillas.htm
If you are interested to incorporate the information of the seeds that your company distributes, please mail to arodrigu@catie.ac.cr ; wvasquez@catie.ac.cr or bsf@catie.ac.cr. A username and access code will be assigned to you.