Progress report

November 2011

During the reporting period, i.e. in 2011, several activities were funded from this project, namely:

• REDD+ pre-feasibility study in Indonesia, in cooperation with Marubeni/METI Japan;
• REDD+ feasibility study in Brazil, in cooperation with Marubeni/MOE Japan;
• Study on wood-based industry sector in Nigeria;
• Review of project proposal PD 456/07, the RIFFEAC project for Congo Basin countries; and
• Formulation of project proposal for the ACTO biodiversity project in the Amazon basin.

 December 2010

There was no new activity since the last reporting.

November 2009

During the reporting period, as mandate in the Decision 5(XLIV) ITTC/25, 8 November 2008, four ITTO capacity building training workshops on revised manual on project formulation (Third Edition, 2008) were organized in Chiang Mai (Thailand, 20-25 April 2009) and Ibadan (Nigeria, 11-15 May 2009) for English speaking countries, Libreville (Gabon, 27 April-1 May 2009) for French speaking countries, and Guatemala City (Guatemala, 12-16 May 2009) for Spanish speaking countries. A technical assistance was provided to the government of Indonesia for the development of a project proposal to contribute to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in line with the ITTO Thematic Programme on REDDES. Based on this assistance, the Ministry of Forestry, Indonesia prepared and submitted a proposal entitled "Tropical Forest Conservation for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and Enhancement of Carbon Stocks in Meru Betiri National Park, Indonesia". This proposal was approved and financed by 7&i holdings Co., Japan.

December 2008

The objective of this project is to improve the project identification and formulation capabilities of personnel in ITTO producer member countries in order to expand national absorption capacity for investment and aid in the forestry sector. The importance of the project was recognized in Council decisions 2(X), 2(XI), 6(XIII), and 8(XVIII), which remind and encourage Members to use the expert facility available under the project to enhance their ability to identify and formulate good projects.

The project is closely linked to other ITTO activities, in particular, the Expert Panel and the Project Cycle consultancies, which together comprise a multiple approach to seeking quality in the structure and implementation of the project cycle. The project has organized several training workshops and funded several independent consultancies to assist Members with project formulation.

Workshop participants were informed about ITTO's project cycle and received practical training in the identification and formulation of projects specially designed for submission to the ITTC. The main areas of the training included:

• Project identification, definition and formulation;
• Problem and objective trees to design project objectives, outputs and activities;
• Logical framework matrix to allow the objective measurement of the progress of project work and of its expected achievements;
• Participatory planning techniques to achieve project outputs;
• Environmental, social and economic aspects of project formulation;
• Project budget by activities and by sources;
• Role-playing of ITTO Expert Panel for Technical Appraisal of Project Proposals;
• Rules and procedures applying for ITTO project implementation and completion;
• A series of ITTO Guidelines covering the sustainable management of tropical forests, including ITTO Manuals for the Application of Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests at both the national and forest management levels;
• Visits to observe best practice in sustainable forest management in tropical forests.

During the reporting period, technical assistance and guidance has been provided to Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Thailand, Mexico and Guatemala on the use of the revised ITTO Project Formulation Manual and the newly developed computerized tools. This has been achieved through the organization of national training workshops to enhance the capacity of national experts to use the revised Manual and computerized tools as well as to provide an opportunity to test and assess the Manual's and computerized tools' usefulness and appropriateness. In addition to those supported countries, technical assistance has been given to Liberia to progress towards the sustainable management of its forest resources, including formulating recommendations and preparing project proposals.

November 2007

During the reporting period, that is 2007, technical assistance and guidance has been provided to Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, and Thailand on the use of the revised ITTO Project Formulation Manual and the newly developed computerized tools through the organization of national training workshops to enhance the capacity of national experts to use the revised Manual and computerized tools as well as to provide an opportunity to test and assess the Manual’s and computerized tools’ usefulness and appropriateness. Both countries submitted to ITTO projects that were elaborated in the workshops.