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International audienc

Climate change and forest genetic diversity: Implications for sustainable forest management in Europe

Climate change is increasingly recognized as one of the most important challenges faced globally by ecosystems and societies alike. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change could increase average temperatures by 2-4°C in Europe over the next 50 years and cause considerable changes in regional and seasonal patterns of precipitation. This will alter the environmental conditions to which forest trees in Europe are adapted and expose them to new pests and diseases. Climate change will thus create additional challenges for forest management, with consequent impacts on the economic and social benefits that societies and individuals derive from the forests, and on the biological diversity in forest ecosystems. Forest genetic resources in Europe are still facing several threats, including habitat destruction, fragmentation, pollution, poor silvicultural practices and use of low quality or poorly adapted forest reproductive material. The threats and the distribution of forest genetic resources do not respect national borders, and thus countries are dependent on each other's forest genetic resources for practising sustainable forest management. This interdependence of countries in terms of forest genetic resources is likely to increase in the future due to climate change. Because of the threats, the First Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE), held in Strasbourg in 1990, addressed the importance of conserving forest genetic resources (Strasbourg Resolution 2). This happened well before the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), organized in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, brought biodiversity into the global agenda. UNCED launched a new era in the international dialogue on forests and recognized, through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), that countries have a sovereign right over their own genetic resources but also a responsibility to manage these resources sustainably

Improvement of broadleaved species ? The present state of the art in the German Federal Republic and in France

Depuis 20 à 30 ans, les généticiens forestiers ouest-allemands et français ont porté un certain intérêt à l'amélioration des feuillus. Un effort tout particulier est consenti depuis une époque plus récente. Les objectifs des deux pays sont a peu près les mêmes : information sur les meilleures sources de graines des grandes essences sociales, hêtre et chêne ; introduction et sélection d'essences à haute productivité adaptées à des sols hydromorphes, tremble, peuplier, bouleau, chêne rouge, tulipier ; sélection d'individus à qualité de bois élevée, érable, merisier, noyer. L'article donne l'état d'avancement des programmes engagés dans les deux pays. Pour l'Allemaqne fédérale, par des équipes d'améliorateurs des provinces du Bade-Wurtemberg, de Hesse et de Basse Saxe en France par l'équipe des améliorateurs forestiers de l'I.N.R.A. La conclusion montre les voies possibles et sûrement nécessaires du développement de ces programmes.In the last 20 to 30 years, forest geneticists in West Germany and France have taken a certain amount of interest in the improvement of broadleaved species, and more recently a specially concerted effort fias been made. The objectives of the two countries are almost the same : information as to the best seed sources of the major species in the plant communities - the beech and the oak ; introduction and sélection of highly productive species adapted to hydromorphic soils — aspen, poplar birch American red oak, and yellow poplar ; selection of individuals with high quality wood — maple cherry and walnut. The article describes the present state reached by the programmes reached by the programmes undertaken in the two countries : in the Federal German Republic by the teams of tree breeders in the Lands of Baden-Wurttemberg, Hesse and Lower Saxony, and in France by the INRA team The conclusion points out the paths that can be taken, and certainly must be if thèse programmes are to develop

Hall, James Nordman. Lost Island

Teissier du Cros Louis. Hall, James Nordman. Lost Island. In: Journal de la Société des océanistes, tome 2, 1946. p. 279