The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) is an intergovernmental organization that promotes the sustainable management and conservation of tropical forests as well as the expansion and diversification of international trade in tropical timber from sustainably managed forests and obtained legally. The ITTO:

• develop internationally agreed guidelines and standards to promote sustainable forest management and the sustainable tropical timber industry and trade;
• supports tropical Member States to adapt these guidelines and standards to local conditions and to implement them through projects and other activities in the field;
• gathers, analyzes and disseminates data relating to the production and trade of tropical timber;
• promotes sustainably sourced tropical wood supply chains;
• helps build capacity in tropical forestry.

ITTO is an action-oriented and practice-based organization with over thirty years of experience. It has financed and contributed to the implementation of over a thousand projects and activities dealing with the many aspects of sustainable forest management, including: forest restoration; efficiency in the use of wood; the competitiveness of wood products; market information and transparency in the tropical timber trade and related supply chains; forest law enforcement and forest governance; illegal logging; the conservation of biodiversity; Mitigating change climate change and adaptation to its effects; the contributions of non-wood forest products and environmental services; and the livelihoods of forest-dependent people.