History

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Caption: Bruce Zobel (R) inspects a wood sample during an Annual Meeting in the early years of the Camcore program

In the late 1970s, Bruce Zobel (North Carolina State University), Carl Gallegos (then International Paper Company), Willy Mittak (then Food and Agriculture Organization) and Jesse Perry (retired, Rockefeller Foundation) decided to form an international organization dedicated to the conservation of tropical and subtropical trees in Mexico and Central America. Dr. Mittak and Mr. Perry had years of experience in the region as forest taxonomists, and Drs. Zobel and Gallegos had important links to forest industry around the world.

Caption: The late Jesse Perry (R) and Crisoforo Zamora (INIFAP) with a selection for seed collection in Mexico in the early 1980's

An organization called Camcore (Central America and Mexico Coniferous Resources Cooperative) was formed in 1980 and made part of the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources at North Carolina State University. It was unique in that the driving force behind its development was the private forest sector. Camcore demonstrates that the private sector, in collaboration with government agencies and universities, can make substantial contributions to environmental stewardship and conservation, while providing economically sound forest management. Camcore has also attracted the support of Foundations and granting agencies to assist with its conservation work. 

Camcore makes seed collections in threatened forest stands and then plants these on members’ land in more protected areas with similar climates in countries around the world. This process is called ex situ conservation. It’s members also establish field trials to determine the productivity of different forest species. Camcore staff in Raleigh analyzes the data and produce annual summaries. In 1980, Camcore had five founding members: Smurfit Cartón de Colombia, Aracruz Florestal (Brazil), International Paper Company (USA), the Weyerhaeuser Company (USA), and the National Seed Bank in Guatemala. Membership has grown to include more than 32 institutions on 4 continents.

Camcore seed collections expanded from Central America and Mexico to include Southeast Asia in 1994. The Program is now working with 38 different forest species and has sampled 11,000 trees in 500 locations. It has more than 2,500 hectares of conservation banks and field trials. It has the largest database on tropical and subtropical pines in the world. Because of its international scope of activities, Camcore is now known as an “International Tree Conservation and Domestication Program.”