AT THE November meeting of theInternational Tropical TimberOrganisation'(ITTO), some industrialised countries proposedlabelling imported timber according to region of origin and whetherit came from a "sustainably logged"forest. Timber from "unsustainablylogged" forests would be banned bythe consumer countries.
The proposal was not acceptedbecause of fears that if forests nolonger provided an, economicincentive for timber-producingcountries, they would be clearedfor other economic purposes. Therewas no consensus also on the I'sustainability" of commercial logging,which is to be reached by 2000.
However, Austria has unilaterally made labelling of tropical timber mandatory, rousing Malaysia'sire. The Austrian move was partlydue to anticipation that failure toachieve selective bans will leadenvironmental NGOs to lobby for atotal consumer boycott of tropicaltimber.
A motion was made to includetemperate forests in ITTO'spurview, but this was not acceptable to the North, which did notwant its forests to be monitored bythe international community.However, the meeting achieved little in fulfilling ITTO's main goals.According to an NGO statementissued on the last day, "Again, themeeting has been dominated bytortuous debate on project proposals, far.from adjusting the balanceof ITTO's activities towards muchneeded policy discussion."