No. 909                                      Geneva, 28 March 1996


CONCERNING:


     Report of the first meeting of the Timber Working Group


1.At  the request of the Standing Committee, the Secretariat sends
  to  the  Parties the report of the first meeting of  the  Timber
  Working  Group,  held  in  Kew  (United  Kingdom)  from  27   to
  29 November 1995.

2.The  Parties are invited to provide, before 31 May 1996, to  the
  CITES Secretariat their comments on the conclusions reached  and
  on  recommendations made by the Timber Working Group. The Timber
  Working  Group will consider these comments at its next meeting,
  where it will prepare its final report for consideration by  the
  tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties.

3.At  its  next meeting, the Timber Working Group will include  in
  its agenda the following items.

     a)      Comments   received   from   Parties   and   relevant
     international  organizations  on  the  report  of  the  first
     meeting of the Timber Working Group.

     b)      The    potential   contribution   by    international
     organizations.

     c)   Parts and derivatives of timber.

     d)    The  effect of Appendix-III listing (if trade data  are
     available).

     e)    The  disposal  of confiscated timber (Resolution  Conf.
     9.10).

     f)    The definition of "artificially propagated" in relation
     to timber.

     g)   The possible impacts of CITES timber listings.

     h)   Implementation issues relating to high-volume trade.