Home
Back to activities

Bruno Manser Fonds
Heuberg 25
4051 Basel
Switzerland
phone +41 61 261 94 74
fax +41 61 261 94 73

info@bmf.ch

updated 2001-05-25

Petition to the Federal Council

Withdrawal of Switzerland from the ITTO

Import moratorium for tropical timber from over-felling

Deutsche Texte | Texte Français

The International Tropical Timber Organisation ITTO was founded in 1983 by countries exporting and importing tropical timber, with the clear and binding target that from the year 2000 only tropical timber from sustainably managed forests would be traded, while trade in timber which does not meet the ITTO guidelines created for that purpose would be banned.

Then in the 90s, when the awareness of the problem of destruction of the tropical rainforests was aroused in the industrialised countries, not least through the total commitment of Bruno Manser, reference to this target silenced all criticism of commercial timber exploitation in the rainforests, although it could already be predicted that the ITTO's target would not be achieved. In fact the countries producing tropical timber never intended to achieve this target!

photo: Ruedi Suter

At its session in November 2000 the ITTO admitted that it had not achieved its target. In its own evaluation Switzerland has come to the same conclusion: none of the producing countries which are members is managing its forests today, in the year 2001, in accordance with the ITTO guidelines - less than 1% of internationally traded tropical timber now complies with the ITTO guidelines! The motto "maximum profit in minimum time" applies as always, without concern for biodiversity, cultural variety or global impact. The destruction of the tropical rainforests by the timber industry is actually increasing. As well as the extermination of many animal and plant species it is the forest peoples who are suffering most from the tropical timber consumption of the wealthy industrialised nations.

However, inexplicably the ITTO member states in the industrialised worlds have failed to take any trade policy measures, as was originally envisaged in the ITTO. They now simply want to achieve the "target" only in 4, 10 or even 15 years' time! By then there will no longer be any natural rainforests in most countries exporting tropical timber, only timber plantations.

So the ITTO is contributing nothing to the protection of the tropical rainforests. Nevertheless the ITTO target 2000 serves the Swiss government (Federal Council, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, State Secretariat for Trade) as a pretext for avoiding effective measures against the destruction of the tropical rainforests (e.g. ban on imports of timber from over-felling, duty of declaration). We therefore challenge the Federal Council to terminate its membership of the ITTO and to use the funds saved (at least 2 million francs per year) for more effective measures to protect the tropical forests.

As a further consequence of the failure of the ITTO the undersigned demand that the Federal Council should immediately stop the import of all tropical timber not originating from ecologically and socially sustainable production, in particular also for timber from Sarawak / Malaysia, where over-felling of the forest is particularly serious and where the rights of the Penan and other indigenous inhabitants are being notoriously flouted.

 

We support the petition launched by the Bruno-Manser-Fonds to the Federal Council "Withdrawal of Switzerland from the ITTO import moratorium for tropical timber from over-felling" A petition can be signed by anyone, regardless of age, nationality or residence.
Name		Address	Signature
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.