Role of Domestication in Conservation

home Tree Domestication Role of Domestication in Conservation

Advocates of conservation and practitioners of tree domestication are sometimes at odds with one another. At Camcore, we believe that these two activities complement each other.

Caption: Camcore's Jose Romero with Pinus tecunumanii trial and conservation planting at Alto Paraná, S.A., Misiones, Argentina

The use of fast-growing, high-quality plantations to meet the world demand for timber reduces the pressure on native and old growth forests around the world. This increases the likelihood of long-term preservation of these natural populations.

Caption: Plantation forests (front) take pressure off indigenous forests (back), like this one in Cauca, Colombia

Tree domestication programs establish and maintain conservation banks with genetically diverse populations. This ensures long-term potential for adaptation to a broad range of new environments or changing climates.

Plantation forests take pressure off natural forests by serving as a source of industrial wood products or fuel wood. There are approximately 200 million hectares of plantations in the world; 40% are considered fast growing (> 5 m3/hectare/yr). Plantation forests can be 5 to 20 times more productive than native forests when seed from a properly selected source is used. This means future forests do not need to use nearly as much space as native forests to produce the same amount of wood. The greatest need for wood in the future will be fuelwood, and plantations must be developed to serve this need. In order to develop these plantations, species and populations must be conserved by the efforts of organizations such as Camcore. If not, seeds will not be available for a number of countries to try new tree species.

Caption: Martin Gutierrez of PROFORCA at Pinus caribaea seed orchard in Venezuela

In the world today, over 50% of the annual wood harvest goes to fuelwood for cooking and heating, while the remainder is used by forest industry to produce paper, timber, plywood, and other products. Plantations of forest trees now account for about 3% of the total forested area in the world and produce more than 10% of the world wood needs (Sedjo 1999¹). Around 25% of industrial wood usage comes from plantations, and this is expected to rise to 50% by the year 2050.

However, plantation forestry is now being pushed to more marginal lands, while higher quality land is planted to agricultural crops, or converted to urban uses. New species and populations of trees will have to be found that are well adapted to these marginal sites. Domestication programs will need to produce different populations of trees that are adapted to many different climatic and soil conditions. The only way to achieve this is to have access to a wide range of genetic diversity in a conservation program.

One of Camcore’s guiding principles has been that endangered species and populations need to be conserved, regardless of any known or immediate economic value. Species deemed “unimportant” may or may not have academic, ecologic, or economic value in the future, but unless they are saved from extinction, they will be lost forever.

As an example, Camcore has worked with a species called Sterculia apetela. It is native to Central America and northern South America. It has soft wood and therefore is not used much locally. However, Camcore has found that it grows reasonably well on sandy soils. Camcore continues to conserve this species in trials and conservation banks. More study is needed on how to better use its wood.

Caption: Old growth Sterculia apetala seed tree in Honduras	Caption: Sterculia apetala, a Camcore conservation species of limited commercial value, in Colombia
	Caption: Planting trees on marginal land in South Africa.

1 Sedjo, R.A. 1999. The potential of high-yield plantation forestry for meeting timber needs. New Forests 17: 339-359