Technology transfer in sustainable trade of tropical timber: the contribution of the International Tropical Timber Organization between State sovereignty and international protection of forests

The following work aims at analyzing the technology transfer mechanisms in the field of protection and sustainable trade in tropical timber. With reference forests the work intends to scrutinize the engagement of States to favor an effective technology transfer in the field of sustainable trade in tropical timber market. Therefore, the paper intends to consider the legal tension between the principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources and the principle of equitable use of these ones. While the concept of sovereignty still stands the defining element with respect to the full and exclusive use of the forest heritage, some developments in international environmental law are evident, thus underlining the growing emergence of equitable use as a constitutive value in the international law of forests. With regard to the issue of tropical forests, the work intends to detect the contribution of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), as an international legal entity which, on the basis of its founding treaty, defines a binding legal regime for the protection of forests and, consequently, for the sustainable trade of tropical timber on a global scale. In this sense, the instrument of technology transfer through the technical advice provided by this Organization represents a constituent of scientific and technical cooperation to balance economic interests with the legal prerogatives of environmental protection. The transfer of environmentally-sound technologies represents a modality of technology transfer aimed at fostering international cooperation for the protection of tropical forests, indeed recognizing the social and economic benefits that this mechanism can have towards developed and developing countries.