ITTO and TRAFFIC sign memorandum of understanding
Johannesburg, South Africa, 3rd October 2016—a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between ITTO, the International Tropical Timber Organization, and TRAFFIC to pursue shared objectives in the areas of the conservation, sustainable management and use of tropical forest resources, the fight against illegal wildlife trade and other forest-related crime.
The MOU was signed by Dr Steven Johnson, Officer-in-Charge of ITTO and Mr Steven Broad, Executive Director, TRAFFIC during the sidelines of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP17) currently underway in Johannesburg, South Africa, where a number of timber related proposals and working documents are currently being discussed and negotiated.
ITTO, through its partnerships with CITES and others, plays a key role in ensuring that timber trade is sustainable and comes from sustainably managed forests. Dr Johnson said, “the MOU with TRAFFIC will bring a new dimension to ITTO’s work on forest-related and wildlife crimes that are hindering the sustainability of the trade and management of forests.”
ITTO is an intergovernmental organization established under the International Tropical Timber Agreement 1983 (ITTA, 1983) and subsequently administered under ITTA, 1994 and ITTA, 2006 to promote the expansion and diversification of international trade in tropical timber from sustainably managed and legally harvested forests.
TRAFFIC is the leading non-governmental organization working globally on trade in wild animals and plants in the context of both biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.
The MOU aims to formalize, consolidate and further strengthen ITTO and TRAFFIC’s co-operation and increase the effectiveness towards achieving the two organizations’ shared objectives.
“Timber is by some margin the most valuable wild-sourced commodity globally: through this MoU, TRAFFIC and ITTO will strive to strengthen our co-operation in the conservation and sustainable management of this valuable natural resource
Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC
