At the Annual General Assembly on June 7, 2023, the ATIBT's activity report for 2023 was presented.
You can download it here (French version)
It is accompanied by the moral report of ATIBT President Françoise Van de Ven.
MORAL REPORT FROM THE ATIBT PRESIDENT
Opening of the Annual General Meeting of June 7, 2024
Dear members, dear directors, dear guests,
As President, I am pleased to present my report for the year 2023, a year rich in facts, actions and results, the latter highlighting our association's orientations and prospects.
At the beginning of the year, we were confronted with the entry into force of the COP CITES 2022 decisions, with the inclusion of three species, KHAYA, DOUSSIE and PADOUK, in Appendix II. Producing countries had just three months in which to draw up their “Notice of Non-Prejudicial Trade” reports, with the publication of annual quotas. With Congo Basin countries in need of support and capacity-building, and European importers looking for information on importing these species requiring CITES permits, all turned to our association for support and information.
Latin American countries will also be concerned, with two species due to be listed in Appendix II from the end of 2024, namely CUMARU and IPE. Their requests and those of the Congo Basin led to the creation of a CITES working group, under the aegis of the ATIBT Forest & Industry Commission. This was imperative if we were to meet these needs. A project was presented to our backers and members to obtain a budget to enable the work of this group, a complex task involving science, understanding how CITES works, the EU's additional criteria on imports into Europe, and many other aspects of obtaining export or import permits.
With the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) in force since June 29, 2023, and coming into force on December 29, 2024 (and June 29, 2025 for SMEs), the ATIBT, specifically the Certification Commission, has also been mobilized to inform members of the regulation's requirements through webinars, meetings, presentations and brochures. The publication of the regulations strengthened the link we had with ETIC, EUROPEAN TIMBER INDUSTRIES CONFEDERATION, a Brussels-based federation in contact with the European Commission's Directorates General, and which participates in several platforms concerned by the various E.U. regulations. Of course, we also cooperate with ETTF, the EUROPEAN TIMBER TRADE FEDERATION.
In terms of the ATIBT Commissions, 2023 also saw new technical publications, and the large amount of information on our website was modified. This necessitated a reorganization to link publications to the various Commissions of our association, and thus better guide visitors to our website.
There are many projects underway, and the financial figures will give you more information, while the ATIBT annual activity report will provide more detailed information on current projects.
Important issues such as CITES, RDUE, the threat of embargo on timber from Gabon and the market situation have brought us closer to other partners to consolidate our position and the position of tropical timber, but also to institutions such as CITES, the competent RBUE authorities and other federations. Expansion with members from the USA and Latin American countries, our presence at international conferences, articles in the press, our LinkedIn ATIBT and Instragram FAIR & PRECIOUS pages, all steps and initiatives to assert our position as an International Association continued.
The year 2023 will not have been very favorable for the tropical wood market, but the number of members has increased, a sign that the ATIBT is indeed the reference for tropical woods, and a source of information for numerous donors, partners and institutions.
I can't end my report without informing you that the ATIBT is in the process of obtaining accreditation for CAFI (Central African Forest Initiative), a process which requires our association to put in place a number of internal procedures, necessary for the validation of accreditation and the possibility of submitting projects. Other projects are in the pipeline, and the year 2024 promises new prospects, but as always with its challenges.
I invite you to read the annual report, which clearly illustrates the enormous amount of work carried out by the ATIBT team!
Dear members, dear partners, I now give the floor to the team for what follows.
Françoise Van de Ven
President
