How Camcore Works to Conserve

home Gene Conservation How Camcore Works to Conserve

Camcore technician Mauro Gomez climbing Pinus tecunumanii in Guatemala

Camcore, with help from both active and honorary members, makes exploration trips into rugged and isolated areas of Central America and Mexico and various locations in Southeast Asia to find new populations of threatened trees. Once a forest population is identified as being threatened, its location is verified using a GPS (Global Positioning System). We then choose 20 to 50 seed-bearing trees from each population exhibiting good growth and form (whenever possible). Our goal is to collect seeds from enough trees in each population in the donor country to ensure that our sample represents the genetic diversity of the entire population.

Angel Flores climbing Pinus leiophylla in Mexico

Each tree chosen for collection receives a special pedigree number that is recorded in our database and is passed on to its offspring (called family seedlots). Individual family seedlots are then sent to Camcore members throughout the world to plant field conservation banks and progeny trials using a standard test design recommended by Camcore at North Carolina State University.

Starting in the 1980s, conservation banks have been established around the world, while some of the original populations have disappeared.  Seeds from some of the original series of conservation banks are now being collected to initiate a second generation of ex situ plantings and for reintroduction into original donor countries.

Endangered Pinus maximartinezii seed collection in a natural stand in Cerro de los Pinones, Mexico

Ex situ Pinus maximartinezii planting in South Africa