IUFRO 125th Anniversary Congress Spotlight #55: Genetics research crucial to future forest health, adaptation, conservation and sustainable management
“The role genetics/genomics research can play in forest management is huge but, unfortunately, remains under-utilized,” said Dr. Om Rajora, Professor of Forest Genetics and Genomics at the University of New Brunswick, Canada.
“Genetics/genomics research can greatly assist the management of natural and planted forests by conserving healthy, productive, well-adapted and genetically diverse natural forest and developing high yielding tree varieties with desired traits for deployment in plantations,” he said.
Dr. Rajora is the organizer and coordinator of a session entitled Genetics and Genomics for Conservation, Climate Adaptation and Sustainable Management of Forests to be presented at the IUFRO 125th Anniversary Congress in Freiburg, Germany in September. Read more…
IUFRO Spotlight #41 – Sustainable Planted Forests to Meet Growing Global Needs
The 2015 Global Forest Resources Assessments report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) noted that “…in planted forests, a new timber resource is continuing to be created … (that will) contribute significantly not only to future wood and energy supplies but … (also to) a range of wider social and environmental benefits…”
About 25 years ago, planted forests represented 4% of the world’s forested area. Today they represent almost 7%. But that 7% provides at least one-third of the world’s timber, so their importance should not be underestimated. Read more…
How far should we go “native”? Re-conceptualizing biodiversity restoration in urban forests
Keynote Speech by Professor Makoto Yokohari, The University of Tokyo, at the IUFRO Regional Congress for Asia and Oceania
Restoring biodiversity by reforesting urban fabrics is one of common urgent tasks for cities in the world in general and in the Asia and Oceania region in particular. After all, seven of the ten largest cities in the world are in this region. One of these cities is Tokyo. It accommodates 10 million people. More than 30 million people live in the national capital region; this is one third of the total population of Japan. However, despite the high number of population in Tokyo, one third of its area is mountainous, largely covered by natural and planted forest patches.
We should be aware of the fact that where you find megacities you often also find high biodiversity. Consequently, when talking about biodiversity, we cannot exclude cities as they often coincide with biological hotspots. Of course, the green spaces in cities do not only serve the purpose of biodiversity but they are also used by people for recreation. Urban greens are areas of human comfort. But how to balance between human comfort and biodiversity? Read more…
Latest Progresses of Silviculture Research in China
Professor Zhang Shougong, Chinese Academy of Forestry, held the first keynote address at the IUFRO Regional Congress for Asia and Oceania on Monday, 24 October 2016.
As one of the leading scientists in silviculture and forest management in China, Professor Zhang Shougong, President of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, has long experience in establishment of planted forests and sustainable forest management. His research interests cover quality improvement and breeding of larch species, technologies for larch forest management and their application. Read more…