BackgroundThe conservation of forest tree genetic resources has gained enormous attention over the past several years around the world due to the increasing needs and pressures on forest managers and politicians to address issues of sustainability. The Convention on Biological Diversity committed as a key goal to “develop effective and equitable information systems and strategies and promote implementation of those strategies for in situ and ex situ conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic diversity, and support countries in their implementation and monitoring.”
Forest genetic conservation is critical to maintaining our stewardship responsibilities in B.C. The Ministry is also obligated to do so under international agreements, including the Convention on Biological Diversity. Good stewardship of forest genetic resources also will allow forest industry better access and marketing of forest products through third party certification, and independent auditing through mechanisms incorporating genetic diversity in criteria and indicators. OverviewAs far back as the early 1980s, people like Dr. Gene Namkoong, were advancing genetic conservation strategies as an emerging need within the forest genetics community, and laying out many approaches addressing conservation and operational tree breeding. However, many agencies and programs were not able to address these issues at the time, as the methodology of tree improvement was still developing from crop species techniques. Although genetic conservation has been discussed for many years in the conservation literature, few initiatives really developed into anything practical. For instance, while it was desirable to think of wild populations (e.g., protected parklands) as being prudent to maintain, our understanding of their utility for genetic conservation was limited to representing a given ecosystem or providing habitat for a species. It was clear from short and long-term selection experiments that ample genetic variation was still preserved even in small breeding populations of maize, fruit flies, and other species, even after many generations of selection. We are only now beginning to understand the genetic implications of protected areas and population sizes needed to maintain adaptive capacity over the long term, especially in light of predicted changes in climate and their impacts on species and populations within protected areas. Research direction and programsThe Research Branch, Forest Genetics Section, undertakes both theoretical research and the practical applications of genetic conservation activities, with input from the Genetic Conservation Technical Advisory Committee of the Forest Genetics Council of B.C. (FGC), and with support and input from the Centre for Forest Conservation Genetics (CFCG) at UBC (http://genetics.forestry.ubc.ca/cfcg/). Research Branch also advises Tree Improvement Branch and the Chief Forester on genetic resource management issues as they pertain to seed supply, timber supply analysis, deployment, and planning. The general strategy in place framing most of our forest genetic conservation activities in B.C. is described in “A quantitative framework for breeding and conservation of forest genetic resource in British Columbia” by Alvin Yanchuk (Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 31: 566-576, 2001). In situ activitiesSeveral other publications describe past and current
activities related to our in situ conservation programs. The first was Research
Branch, Research Note #4, “A
Survey of the Protected Status of Conifers in British Columbia: In situ gene
conservation” by D.T. Lester and A.D. Yanchuk, which was followed up by
“Setting priorities for conservation of the conifer genetic resources of British
Columbia” by Yanchuk, A.D. and D.T. Lester. (For. Chron. 72: 406-415, 1996). Since 1996, the area and in situ resources protected in parks, reserves, etc. in B.C. have more than doubled from 6% to over 12%, representing a wide range of habitats. With the establishment of the CFCG at UBC a cataloguing project was undertaken to re-examine the conservation status of forest tree gene resources using Geographic Information Systems and newer inventory databases since the initial survey conducted by Lester and Yanchuk. A brief description of the project at UBC is given in http://www.genetics.forestry.ubc.ca/cfcg/projects.html#cataloguing.
The full research program is described in a paper entitled “Cataloguing in situ protection of genetic resources for major commercial forest trees in British Columbia” by Hamman, A., Aitken, S.N. and A.D. Yanchuk (Forest Ecology and Management 197: 295-305, 2004). Further details of conservation status by biogeoclimatic zone and species are provided at the CFCG web site (http://genetics.forestry.ubc.ca/cfcg/). The full revised report and interpretations highlighting key conservation gaps in species and ecosystem representation is in press and shortly to be released as MFR Technical Reports 53 (In situ genetic conservation status of all indigenous B.C. tree species). A companion report evaluating the in situ, ex situ, and inter situ status of commercial tree species in B.C. by seed planning unit is in press, to be published as MFR Technical Report 54 (Genetic conservation status of all B.C. commercial tree species). Both will be available to download from the MFR publications website (http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/Tr.htm). Future research and programs in genetic conservationThe cataloguing project supported by the CFGC at UBC represents an important milestone in documenting baseline status of in situ conservation of forest tree genetic resources in B.C. The data and subsequent reporting functions will be transferred to MFR over the coming year to evaluate whether conservation gaps are being filled, and to revise the analysis as additional inventory data becomes available. Recent achievements have included:
Ministry Contact:
Alvin Yanchuk |
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