General recommendations
Technical recommendations
RECOMMENDATIONS TO GOVERNMENTS
1. The regional timber trend studies published by FAO demonstrate the greatly increased demand for forest products in tropical countries, as a result of rising standards of living and rapid increases in population.
These trends, coupled with the generally. low productivity of natural tropical forest stands, are focusing increased attention on the need to establish plantations of high-yielding species - either to supplement or replace the natural stands.
Despite a recent modest start in a few tropical countries, mainly on teak and tropical pines, the scale of forest genetics and tree improvement in the tropics is entirely inadequate, both in geographical distribution and species coverage, and bears no relation to its potential value and importance. All the indications are, however, that dramatic increases in production in many tropical species could be achieved by even the most elementary work on selection of seed trees, provenance research and formation of seed orchards. The major advantage in these regions is the speed with which results can be obtained.
The Consultation accordingly draws the attention of the governments of those tropical countries with forestry interests to the urgent need for developing planned programmes of forest genetics and tree improvement. The Consultation also urges those organizations and countries concerned with multilateral or bilateral technical assistance in developing countries to consider thoroughly the possibility of including training centres and fellowships in forest genetics and tree improvement in their programmes.
Progress: Considerable progress has been made, among which may be cited the development of tree improvement programmes in east Africa (serving Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), Ghana, Malawi, Malaysia, New Guinea, Nigeria, Thailand (Thai-Danish teak and pine improvement stations) and Zambia.
Plans are also under consideration for a west African tree improvement station.
FAO has provided tree breeders to work on FAO/UNDP field projects in several countries, including China (Taiwan), Cuba, Malaysia, Pakistan and Tunisia and a much larger number is engaged with species and provenance trials. Fellowships have been provided for training in tree breeding, in the last six years and highly successful training centres have been held in Denmark in 1966 and in the United States in 1969.
Needs: Despite this progress, the volume of tree improvement work in the tropics is still entirely inadequate in comparison with the potential gains to be derived and, in some areas, with the rate at which forest gene resources are being depleted. Special attention is needed to ensure that wood of exotics planted in the tropics is usable for intended purposes.
2. There is an urgent need for adequate information on forest genetics and tree improvement, and the Consultation proposes that these subjects should be included in the silvicultural curriculum of schools, colleges and universities giving forestry courses. In many countries this may involve modification of the existing curricula, and the Consultation urges the governments and institutions concerned to take the necessary measures without delay.
Progress: A IUFRO Working Group on Education for Research in Forest Genetics has conducted a survey on the status of university-level training in forest genetics and tree breeding. Plans are to develop model curricula and course outlines to assist those who want to add these topics.
3. The Consultation recognizes that choice of seed source is one of the main elements in the success and productivity of plantations, and that provenance studies provide a sound basis for the choice of seed sources. The Consultation recommends, therefore, that governments concerned with afforestation and reforestation pay the greatest attention to the choice of seed sources and initiate or develop provenance research in close relation to their afforestation and reforestation programmes.
Progress (Recommendations 3 to 6): A FAO/IBP I Technical Conference on Exploration, Utilization and Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources, held in Rome in 1967, dealt with these problems for forest trees, as well as crop plants. It led to the establishment of the FAO Panel on Forest Gene Resources. At its first session in October 1968 the Panel drew up a list of species and proposed an action programme of seed procurement for the 1970-79 decade. In addition to the continuing seed activities of Australia and Mexico, valuable new efforts have been made by IUFRO and the governments of Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States in the establishment of regional seed centres. Plans are being coordinated and efforts supported financially, as far as possible, through the FAO panel. Action is still far from commensurate with the problem and finance is still the most severely limiting factor.
¹ International Biological Programme.
Recently started international provenance trials are mentioned opposite Rec. 8. Notable collections of provenances from southeast Asia, of Pinus kesiya, P. merkusii, Eucalyptus deglupta and E. " decaisneana " have recently been made by the Forest Research Institute, Canberra, working in close cooperation with the Philippines and Indonesian forest services, and with financial support from FAO.
4. The Consultation recognizes the importance to worldwide afforestation and reforestation programmes of the acquisition of seeds from many sources of species growing in remote areas. The Consultation recommends, therefore, that forest geneticists and their governments work toward the establishment of seed collection offices. The Consultation commends the governments of Australia and Mexico for their help in collections of eucalypts and Mexican pines, and urges FAO to encourage and support the extension of such action to satisfy critical needs.
5. In numerous regions of the world natural or artificial stands representing valuable or proved sources of seed are in danger of disappearing or being hybridized with other races or species. The Consultation recommends, therefore, that the governments concerned take steps to assure the protection and conservation these stands.
6. Just as the introduction of agricultural crop plants has been basic to the development of agriculture throughout the world, the introduction and testing of forest tree species is basic to the future success of forestry, Especially when forestry is still in the pioneering stage as is often the case in countries at an early stage of development. Governments and research organizations should, therefore, cooperate in providing experimental lots of seed of native forest tree species (including representative geographic races) that have actual or potential value for planting in other countries. All possible efforts should be made toward setting up a service to establish representative provenances of such native species, collect seed of these provenances and make this seed available either free or at cost to approved research organizations or other government agencies (see also Recommendation 4).
7. The Consultation recommends that Member Nations of FAO and OECD should take steps to promote fully affective schemes for the certification of tree seeds an d plants moving within their borders, thus paving the way for the certification of tree seed and plants moving in international trade. It welcomes, therefore, the initiative of OECD in forming an expert group to study and promote certification of such seeds and plants, also in view of the possibility for all Member States of FAO which are not members of OECD to become parties to seed certification schemes which the latter organization may recommend.
Progress: The scheme initiated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been developed and is under consideration for adoption by OECD countries. A proposal that countries other than OECD members should be allowed to join has been put forward, but still awaits approval by the Council of OECD. The IUFRO Working Group on Quantitative Genetics has proposed standards for progeny testing to determine superiority of parents. The European Economic Community (EEC) has adopted a regulation requiring that only reproductive material issued from officially approved selected stands of l 3 designated species can be put into trade. Imports from nonmember countries can be approved if they have an equivalent system or if accepted by the EEC authorities.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO FAO AND IUFRO
8. Widespread species of forest trees are of concern to many nations and research on such species will be most efficient if coordinated between nations by international organizations, such as FAO and IUFRO. Therefore, the Consultation asks Section 22 of IUFRO: |
(a) to prepare and distribute summaries of the results obtained from past international provenance tests;
Progress: (a) A new working group has recently been formed under the leadership of P. Bouvarel (France) for this purpose. Individual members of the working group are appointed as coordinators for particular species or groups of species. A preliminary register of existing international provenance trials has been compiled.
(b) in liaison with FAO to organize new tests to extend the work on species previously studied and initiate new tests of species of broad interests, such as the eucalypts, Mexican pines, western North American conifers, teak and other tropical hardwoods, and Asian tree species;
Progress: (b) New international tests have been laid down, with coordinators as shown: Eucalyptus camaldulensis and E. dalrympleana (Lacaze, Mediterranean Committee of Coordination of Forest Research), Picea abies (Krutzch, Sweden), Pinus merkussii and Cedrela (Lamb, Commonwealth Forestry Institute [CFI], Oxford), Pinus kesiya (Burley, CFI, Oxford), Pseudotsuga menziesii (Hattemer, IUFRO). IUFRO working groups under Barner (Denmark) and Bouvarel (France) have surveyed needs for tests with species.
(c) to prepare instructions concerning the collection seeds, the design of field experiments and evaluation of results to aid in the development of local studies of provenance.
Progress: (c) Report on " Standardization of methods for provenance research and testing " was published in the proceedings of the IUFRO Congress held in Munich (1967). A revised version will appear in Volume 19 of Silvae genetica.
9. The Consultation recommends that Section 22 of IUFRO should form a Working Group on the Exchange of Poplar Seed for Provenance Research Purposes to pro vide minimum standards for the collection and inter national exchange of seed from poplar stands. This working group should act in close liaison with FAO's International Poplar Commission.
Progress: No formal working group was established, but IUFRO stimulated the collection and distribution of Populus deltoides by the Poplar Council of America, through the International Poplar Commission.
10. The introduction and testing of exotic forest trees is a truly international activity because the introduction of any species from one country to another concerns at least these two countries and it is generally of interest to a number of other countries as well. The Consultation agrees that the introduction and testing of exotic forest trees is a field of work in which an international organization such as FAO can render very valuable aid to forestry throughout the world, and particularly to countries at an early stage of development. Accordingly, the Consultation recommends that the Forestry and Forest Products Division of FAO should explore the possibility of setting up an advisory and information unit on the introduction of forest trees with actual or potential use as exotics. The functions of such a unit, to which the IUFRO sections concerned should render all possible assistance, might comprise:
Progress: No unit with as restricted a scope as this has been set up, but the afforestation section in FAO pays close attention to this aspect as an important factor in afforestation. A draft guide to (the conduct of) tree species trials in tropical America was prepared in 1968, and a revised version is to be prepared after comments have been received from the countries concerned.
(a) the provision of advice and information, in response to requests, on planning introduction programmes, the species to be included, sources of seed, testing methods, properties of species and related subjects;(b) the dissemination of information on such tree species;
(c) recommendations for research to be undertaken by individual countries to fill gaps in the available information on these tree species.
Such a unit would need assistance from countries throughout the world to discharge these functions effectively and the Consultation recommends, therefore, that an Advisory Panel on the Introduction and Testing of Exotic Forest Trees should be established by FAO, possibly as a joint undertaking or at least in close association with IUFRO.
The FAO Panel on Forest Gene Resources is well fitted to perform this function among others (see note against Recommendations 3 to 6).
11. To promote the improvement of knowledge on tree physiology, the Consultation recommends that:
Progress: IUFRO established a Working Group on Tree Physiology which met at the IUFRO Congress in Munich (1967). Subsequently a Working Group on Reproduction of Forest Trees has been established and will hold a meeting on sexual reproduction in Finland in 1970. Other working groups on the physiology of growth and on cold and drought damage are being considered.
(a) IUFRO should establish a special working group on tree physiology;(b) FAO should support the organization of specific work in this field, and should consider the possibility of organizing a symposium on tree physiology in association with IUFRO.
FAO has no prospects of holding a symposium on tree physiology in the near future; preliminary plans for a symposium on fertilization in forestry have been drawn up, but the necessary finance has not yet been made available. The International Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and FAO collaborated on a training course on the use of radioisotopes in forestry research.
12. The Consultation recognizes the present and future need in forest tree breeding for a great diversity of forest tree germ plasm, especially of rare or selected germ plasm, both natural and artificial, including seedling, clonal or hybrid material, and requests FAO to promote the establishment and maintenance of several germ plasm banks under the aegis of a suitable organization such as FAO itself.
Progress: FAO has explored the possibilities but is not in a position to set up any international seed bank. Priority is attached to giving moral (and limited financial) support to regional seed centres, such as Canberra and Oxford.
13. The Consultation recommends that FAO should explore with IUFRO and other international or national agencies, such as the Commonwealth Forestry Bureau, the possibility of appointing a trained geneticist to examine the literature on the resistance of forest trees to parasites, accumulate the pertinent and accurate data on the genetic background of parasite resistance and have the review published.
Progress: The need for a forest geneticist on the permanent staff at FAO headquarters is self-evident, but should a new post be established the duties would be less restricted in scope and of a more practical nature. A Symposium on Resistance of Forest Trees to Diseases and Insects was sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Pennsylvania State University The publication summarizing the symposium is a full review of the literature.
14. The Consultation recognizes that resistance! breeding requires the coordination of workers in the field of forest genetics, pathology, entomology, and physiology, and therefore recommends that IUFRO should establish a working group on parasite resistance and improvement.
Progress: A working group has been set up and is operating under its leader, H. D. Gerhold (United States).
15. There is a need to study the regional patterns of flowering and fruiting in forest trees and this makes desirable the standardization of methods of measurement. The Consultation therefore recommends that a working group should be formed within Section 22 of IUFRO to make proposals for standardizing some of the measuring techniques applied in studies on the flowering and seed crop of forest trees.
Progress: A Working Group on Reproduction was established under the leadership of R. Sarvas (Finland) and considered this topic among others at its first meeting in May 1970 in Finland.
16. The Consultation considers that the meeting in Stockholm has provided a concrete and satisfying example of the benefits of good collaboration between FAO and IUFRO. The Consultation therefore recommends that this close collaboration between FAO and IUFRO should be strengthened in future so that FAO may draw on sound scientific advice and the work of the Sections of IUFRO can respond closely and rapidly to the economic and social needs of the time. The Consultation further recommends that the Permanent Committee of IUFRO should take account of the results of the Stockholm meeting an' l consider further collaboration with FAO in calling new consultations on other scientific and technical aspects of forestry.
Progress: Excellent. Witness the present consultation, and the appointment of prominent members from Section 22 of IUFRO to the FAO Panel on Forest Gene Resources.
Cooperation has been maintained in numerous other sectors of forestry, in the form of both international meetings and training centres.
17. The Consultation recommends that a Second Consultation on Forest Genetics and Tree Improvement should be held before the end of the current decade, and gratefully acknowledges the unofficial invitation made by the delegation of the United States of America.
Progress: Held in August 1969 in Washington, D.C.
1. Both natural and induced mutants can be used in physiological, anatomical, and morphological investigations. Because they may be phenotypically different, these mutants also have value as genetic markers in inheritance studies.
2. Further work should be encouraged on the cytology of trees, and on precise chromosome mapping. With current techniques, it is difficult to determine accurately secondary constrictions in karyotype analyses but, as better techniques become available, seemingly similar karyotypes in different genera may well show marked differences in their chromosomes.
3. The genetic structure of populations should! be investigated as thoroughly and defined as precisely as possible to permit realistic and reliable estimates of the genetic parameters (particularly heritabilities and the genetic c correlation between characters) used in developing breeding programmes. Tree breeders should be particularly careful when working with populations of mixed origin because of the possible occurrence of unpredictable genetic effects in such populations.
4. Progeny tests are vital to any breeding programme. To obtain maximum information and to keep costs within tolerable limits, breeders should choose the mating design carefully. They should determine the best designs for field tests of progenies so that these field tests will also give reliable estimates of the breeding values of parents and the genetic parameters of the population. More uniformity trials should be made in planted stands to obtain information about the efficiency of different types of field tests. The results of such investigations and statistical data on field experiments should be published and made available to all tree breeders.
5. Research workers engaged in breeding for parasite resistance to disease and insect attack should make use of controlled pollination and progeny tests to determine precisely how the resistance is inherited (that is, whether due to major genes, genes with slight effects, dominant or recessive genes, or one, several or numerous genes). Open pollination progeny tests are not sufficient and should successively be replaced by progeny tests derived from controlled pollinations.
6. Attention should be paid to the interactions between genotypes and environment and to competition. Appropriate methods should be developed for their study.
7. Studies to develop methods for early testing or early diagnosis should be continued and intensified. They may soon provide the basis for faster progress.
8. Provenance is costly and of long duration. Studies to determine geographic patterns of inherent variation should, therefore, be emphasized when work is initiated on a new species. Preferably these studies should be undertaken before or at least concurrently with the establishment of seed source trials to test numbers of provenances in many localities.
9. More studies are needed of variation in wood properties within and between trees. A real danger is present, however, singe some workers have freely extrapolated within-tree variation to between-tree variation. For example, conditions favouring fast growth of an individual tree usually also result in shorter fibres. This cannot be interpreted to mean that inherently fast-growing trees are also short-fibred trees, and such a relationship has not been proved. Yet many of the ideas regarding tree-to-tree differences in fibre characters have erroneously been extrapolated from within-tree data.
10. More studies are required to relate the effects of wood properties on the final product, both for solid wood products (saw-timber, veneer and others) and for uses such as pulp and chemically treated wood. Without better knowledge breeding for wood properties will proceed at a slow pace. Guidance and directives need to be given to the breeder so he can do his job efficiently. Prediction of needs in the distant future is involved.
11. Care must be taken to use enough trees in wood genetic studies so that results are sound and reliable. Many early reported results are merely indicators of trends and have errors so large that very little reliance can be placed on the absolute values obtained. However, the relative intensity of inheritance can be most helpful to the tree breeder.
12. For some species and some products specific gravity is high enough and wood properties other than specific gravity should be concentrated upon. Morphological characters of major importance are fibre length and fibre width.
13. Spiral grain is a wood character urgently needing investigation. One major problem involves sampling techniques. In the absence of definitive data, trees with spiral grain should be selected against in a breeding programme, especially where the end product is saw timber or veneer stock.
14. " Free splitting " is a major defect of some broadleaved species, especially in eucalyptus. It is not known whether this has a genetic basis and research is needed to determine its cause and control.
15. There is a dearth of genetic studies regarding chemical characters of wood. Such studies are urgently needed and may prove to be the most valuable of all work on the genetics of wood properties.
16. More genetic studies on wood of tropical broadleaved species are required, especially those of high value. Studies of the genetics of the wood properties of broadleaved species in general are scattered and insufficient.
17. The economic advantages of greater wood uniformity are stressed. There is not always need to " change " wood, but greater uniformity per se may be a major goal with real economic value.
18. It is probable that the more fundamental studies on the role of growth substances in flowering can best be done by biochemists working on herbaceous plants but tree physiologists and tree breeders should use their clones to do more work on the effects of environmental conditions on flowering. There is also good evidence of the importance of size of tree in the onset of flowering but the nature of this size effect requires careful study.
19. One promising treatment in seed orchard management is the application of fertilizers. Pruning of the crowns of the trees should, however, be used with care. Close attention should be given to the occurrence of stock-scion incompatibilities and the control of insect pests. In the long term, choice of rootstock and the use of growth substances to control flowering may be promising.
20. When clonal seed orchards are formed, the flowering and fruiting performance of the various clones must be studied and particularly the changes in flowering behaviour with age, their responses to annual variations in climate, added nutrients and pruning. The efficiency of the seed orchards in producing regular crops of well-filled viable seed will depend to a large extent on the knowledge gained about the parent clones.
21. The great importance of inbreeding and associated phenomena in relation to breeding programmes in general and seed orchards in particular is recognized as well as the feet that more must be learned about the variation in self-compatibility of the different parent clones and the role and nature of inbreeding. Evidence exists in Sweden and Australia of a good relation between the performance of the selfed and outbred progenies of certain parent trees.
22. The problem of mass-controlled pollination requires attention. One. promising technique is the use of the polythene greenhouse developed in Finland as a very large isolation bag.
23. The importance of adequate identification of seed and plants and the value of good plantation records are stressed.
