9. REGIONAL UPDATE FOR NORTHEAST ASIA by W. Huoran^[10]

This report consists of a summary account of the development and conservation of the forest genetic resources of the region, Northeast Asia, including China, Japan, the Democratic Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, and Mongolia, since the 11th Session of the FAO Panel of Experts on Forest Gene Resources in October 1999.

1/ Policy and Institutional Issues

1. The State Council of China officially issued the Managerial Regulations for Biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms on May 23, 2001. This legislative document reflects the attitudes of the Chinese government towards biosafety of research, development and trade of GMOs, including all kinds of biological products which are derived from GMOs. All of activities in research and development with forest genetic resources must be bound to these regulations [http://www.agri.gov.cn/_KeJiao/main/fag614.htm]

2. Accordingly, a specific body, named Gene Management Office, was established, under the supervision of a Biosafety Committee in the National Forestry Administration, to control research and development of genetic engineering with trees and the release of GMOs into environments.

3. The 23^rd Session of the Standing Committee, the 9^th National People’s Congress, China, adopted the Law of Combating Desertification of the People’ Republic of China on 31^st of August 2001, it will become effective by January 1^st, 2002. Plant genetic resources of desert areas are stressed in several articles of the law to be protected (Journal of Forestry of China, 2001, No.10, 1-5).

4. Forest ownership has become more diversified in the last few years as economic reform further develops in China. The government policy encourages the public, individuals and private sector to grow trees and plantations on the state land leased for 50 or 70 years to tree growers, which result to more capital invested in plantation forestry. Therefore, privatization process of forest ownership is being accelerated today.

5. It is reported that total area of forested land in China has by 2000 reached 158 million ha, of which 46.67 million ha are plantations, at annually increasing rates of 4.2, 0.6 and 4.0 million ha for planted, air-sowed and mountain closure recovered forests. Forest coverage has been increased to 16.55% (Journal of Forestry of China, 2001, No.4, 10-11).

6. Conservation of biological diversity has achieved a great result, 1,276 nature reserves in different types has been established in China by 2000 with a total area of 123 million ha accounting for 12.44% of the territory. In the whole country, 1,050 national parks have been established with an area of 9.83 million ha.

7. In recent years, tree nursery industry has rapidly developed in China, there are 2,385 state-owned, 59,000 collective and a great number of private nurseries with total area of over 0.1 million ha and a capacity of providing more than 700 million planting stocks per annum.

8. Chinese government has launched 6 major programmes of forestry since 1998, they are as follows:

• Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Natural Forest Resources was initiated in 1998 with total investment of?96,200 million. Commercial logging was absolutely stopped in the forest districts on the upper water catchments of Yangtze River and Yellow River, timber production was reduced by 7.63 million?in the northeastern forest region and over 1 million ha of plantations were established by 2000.

• Conversion of marginal land from agriculture to forestry was started in western China in 1999 and has successfully been expanded into 20 provinces with 224 counties, more than 0.8 million ha of land has been converted to forestry.

• Ecological Programme of Preventing from and controlling desertification in the circle area around Beijing is aimed to improve the environments of Beijing.

• Establishment of conservation forests in the 3N areas (northern, northeastern and northwestern China) and in the middle and lower parts of Yangtze valley.

• Conservation of biological diversity and the establishment and improvement of nature reserves.

• Establishment of commercial plantation forestry for timber production in subtropical regions of China.

The Forestry Basic Law was established in Japan in 1964 to increase forest resources and wood supply. There has been a trend, however, in recent years that forest resources are mainly managed for disaster prevention, environment protection and wild animal and plant genetic conservation. The total area of forest is 25 million ha, of which 10 million ha are natural and 15 million ha planted, respectively, covering 70 % of land area of Japan. About 60% of the forest resources are owned privately in small scale which is considered as a main obstacle to forestry development. There are 1,171,747 forest owners, amongst whom 94% own forest less than 20 ha (Forestry Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan. 2001. Annual report on Trends of Forestry, Fiscal Year 2000).

2/ Technical and Biological Issues

9. The Chinese government has in 2001 decided to establish Sanjiangyuan nature reserve in central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Sanjiangyuan means the water sources of three rivers, Yellow, Yangtze and Yaluzhangbu River. This nature reserve covers a vast geographic area of 31.8 km² with latitude 31°39'-36°16' N and longitude 89°24'-102°23' E and average elevation above 3,000m. The objective is to protect the ecological environment and to conserve biological diversity. Total investment from the government is about 12,400 million, the nature reserve will be established by 2015.

10. In China, a high-tech project was initiated in 2000 to detect physical mechanism how wood is formed, to develop transgenic poplar clones more resistant to insect pests and adverse environments in western China. It is reported that a number of clonal achieves were established, for both in situ and ex situ conservation, with poplars including Populus simonii, P. tomentosa, P. ussuriensis; and, P. nigra and Populus deltoides.

11. In South Korea, poplar breeding program has been undertaken to develop hybrids between P. alba and P. glandulosa, Populus nigra X P. maximowiczii and Populus koreana X P. nigra var. italica. As an effort to screen exotic poplar species, 330 varieties were introduced from other countries and tested for growth and genetic stability. Populus euramericana) (I-214 and I-476) appeared to be the best exotic species for streamside and have been widely planted since 1962. Extensive planting of Italian poplars was partially stopped due to the poplar leaf rust, Melamspora sp. Which had been spread over many areas. Newly introduced P. euramericana 'Eco 28' and P. deltoides 'Lux' are resistant to the disease and thus are expected to substitute the Italian poplar clones. Another poplar species is Populus davidiana. Other species in tree breeding programme include Ailanthus altissima, Firmiana simplex, Salix matsudana, Paulownia coreana and Ginkgo biloba.

12. Exotic species have also been used as alternatives for rapid forestation, short rotation, and other economic purposes where the local indigenous species alone are not enough. For this reason, the introduction of exotic tree species has been a major breeding program. 421 exotic species have been introduced from 38 countries into Korea. This program has resulted in the release of several exotic species including Pinus taeda, Pinus rigida, Pinus strobes and Pinus virginiana.

13. It is reported that genetically modified clones of Populus tomentosa, endemic to China, and of poplar 741 and P. deltoides were developed for insect resistance and released into field. Poplar 741 is a hybrid of combination between [Populus alba L. x (P. davidiana Dode. + P. simonii Carr)] x P. tomentosa] which was developed in Hebei Agriculture University. It was reported that two genes resistant to insect pests, Bt Cry 1Ac and API had been inserted into poplar 741 and expressed. The transgenic plants can be propagated by soft cuttings.

14. The genetic resources are, on the other hand, still abused in exploration, for instance, almost all of the living trees of Taxus yunnanensis in western and northwestern Yunnan Province, China, where is gene-rich area of this species, have been debarked on site for bark collection, according to recent report that it will not be long before this species becomes totally extinct.

15. It is suggested that a regional workshop be organized, with FAO assistance, to develop a network and strategy for conservation and sustainable utilization of the FGR in northeast Asia.

References

Forestry Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan. 2001. Annual report on Trends of Forestry, Fiscal Year 2000.

Table 1. Seed production and procurement in South Korea, species and area (ha)