Tuesday 21 June, 14.00-17.30
Chairs: Richard Whittet (Forest Research, UK), Simone Bianchi (LUKE, Finland) Keynote: Michele Bozzano (EUFORGEN, EFI; Barcelona, Spain)
Session structure:
14.00-14.05 Chairs’ introduction
14.05-14.45 Keynote
14.45-15.40 Regular talks
15.40-16.00 Break
16.10-16.50 Regular talks
16.50-17.30 Round table
Session description:
Investment in forest genetic resources (FGR) tends to pay off very substantially in genetic gains delivered through breeding and better outcomes in ecological restoration. However the rate of return on investment in research and development is relatively long and priorities shift due to environmental and political change. Due to the generally necessary use of technical language, it often falls to scientists to communicate benefits and risks of developing FGR although for most purposes, no more than an intuitive understanding of genetics is truly required and many foresters are expert stewards of FGR without realising it. What role do and should scientists, end-users and policy-makers play in governance and coordination of FGR and over which timescales and within which geographical or administrative boundaries? For example, how do scientists retain and manage a blend of long- and short-term research infrastructure? How do end-users feed into policy and research agendas and where is the line between public good and private gain? How do policy makers handle uncertainty and how do their attitudes risk influence progress? The aim of this session is to demonstrate examples of regional or national/subnational systems of governance and coordination of FGR with a special focus on the role scientists play in them. Positive and negative examples are equally welcome in this session. Our intention is to learn from each other what works and why.
Keynote: Michele Bozzano (EUFORGEN, EFI; Barcelona, Spain)
The FGR Strategy For Europe: a policy document that provides the framework for enabling the transition to an effective FGR conservation and sustainable use in Europe
Download the presentation as a pdf
The Forest Genetic Resources Strategy for Europe is a coordinated and cooperative effort in the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) to improve the conservation and sustainable use of European forest genetic resources. The Strategy goes beyond the individual countries’ efforts and encompasses not only conservation but also sustainable use of forest genetic resources. It introduces new key elements for more accurate characterisation and classification of conserved FGR. It also highlights the need to expand scientific knowledge, defines principles for coordination activities at policy level and recommends future actions and collaborations among different entities and international organisations
In this presentation, after introducing the EUFORGEN programme and the Forest Genetic Resources Strategy for Europe, the presenter will give an overview of the innovative elements of the strategy and some relevant key commitments showing how European countries will cooperate in the next decade on FGR conservation and sustainable use.
Regular talks:
Each presentation is made of a 20 minutes talk with 4 minutes for questions
| Time schedule | Presenting author | Presentation title | Keywords |
| 14.45 – 15.10 | Anssi Ahtikoski (LUKE) | Case studies for the deployment of improved FRM in different regions of Europe: assessment of benefits, costs and risks (pdf) | FRM deployment, adaptive breeding strategies, decision-support tools, policy recommendations |
| 15.10 – 15.35 | Isabel Carrasquinho (INIAV, FAO) | Forest genetic resources conservation and breeding activities in Portugal (pdf) | Forest Genetic conservation; Forest genetic improvement, Maritime pine, Cork oak |
| 16.00 – 16.25 | Richard Whittet (Forest Research) | Opportunities to improve Scots pine in Scotland (and England) – B4EST Case Study (pdf) | Forest reproductive material, forest history, stakeholder perspectives, Dothistroma septosporum, climate change, genetic gain, Scots pine |
| 16.25 – 16.50 | Catherine Bastien (INRAE) | Transformative changes in Tree Breeding to reinforce the contribution of European forest to adaptation and mitigation challenges (pdf) |
Round table:
A 40 minutes round table discussion between the following panelists:
- Bent Leonhard, EFNA
- Barry Gardiner, IEFC
- Chris Kettle, Bioversity International
- Jarkko Koskela, FAO