| European
Tropical Forest Research Network |
By Jelle Maas
The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) is a Centre of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) located in Maccarese, Italy. Its mandate is to advance the conservation and use of genetic diversity for the well-being of present and future generations. The IPGRI programme on Forest Genetic resources may be found at: www.ipgri.org/programmes/grst/FGR/home.htm. IPGRI publishes ‘Backgrounders' short notes giving basic information on IPGRI and plant genetic resources, including a sheet on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). http://www.ipgri.org/institute/pawareness.htm. More information on the institute and its activities are available at http://www.ipgri.org/.
Danida Forest Seed Centre (DFSC) provides technical support to developing countries in the fields of procurement and handling of seed of tropical and subtropical tree species, basic tree improvement and conservation of forest gene resources. http://www.dfsc.dk/
The FAO Forest genetic resources programme http://www.fao.org/forestry/FOR/FORM/FOGENRES/homepage/fogene-e.stm provides access to the REFORGEN database http://www.fao.org/forestry/foris/reforgen/index.jsp on forest genetic resources; the bulletin Forest Genetic Resources http://www.fao.org/forestry/FOR/FORM/FOGENRES/genresbu/genbul-e.stm and other relevant publications.
Dendrome:http://dendrome.ucdavis.edu/ is a collection of forest tree genome databases and other forest genetic information resources for the international forest genetics community. It includes the IUFRO World Directory of Forest Geneticists and Tree Breeders at: http://dendrome.ucdavis.edu/Colleague/index.html. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Genome Database Resource (GDR) at Cornell University, New York hosts this collection of crop databases http://ars-genome.cornell.edu/ .
The CATIE (Latin American Centre for Research and Education on Tropical Agronomy and Natural Resources – based in Costa Rica) website has details (in Spanish) on the CATIE biotechnology laboratory, as well as on project activities including ‘Development of micropropagation strategies to support improvement and conservation of forest species'. Please see: http://www.catie.ac.cr/investigacion/investigacion.asp?pagina=proyectos CATIE also provides a searchable database on seed resources for forest species: http://www.catie.ac.cr/proyectos/prosefor/base/semillas.htm
The projects ‘Distribution of genetic diversity in tree species from the neotropics based on DNA fingerprinting assays: Implications for conservation, sustainable utilization and management', and the follow-up project: Assessment of levels and dynamics of intra-specific genetic diversity of tropical trees for conservation and sustainable management http://www.nbu.ac.uk/inco/ are funded by the European Commission's DG Research International Cooperation Programme. The institutions collaborating on the projects are: the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in Scotland; CATIE; INRA stations in Bordeaux, Guadeloupe and Kourou; the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and INPA in Brazil; and the Flemish Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology. Please see http://www.nbu.ac.uk/inco/partners.htm for contact details.
CAMCORE http://www2.ncsu.edu/camcore/ is the Central America and Mexico Coniferous Resources Cooperative. The website is located at the College of Forest Resources, North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, NC. The objective of the cooperative is: "to conserve, test, and improve forest species in the tropics and subtropics for the benefit of humankind."
The Australian Tree Seed Centre (ATSC) is a central contact point for seed and information about the woody component of Australia's floral biodiversity. ATSC is part of CSIRO (Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Forestry and Forest Products and has been Australia's national tree seed bank for over 30 years. http://www.ffp.csiro.au/tigr/atscmain/index.htm
The European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) is a collaborative programme among European countries aimed at ensuring the effective conservation and the sustainable use of forest genetic resources in Europe http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/networks/euforgen/euf_home.htm. EUFORGEN operates through networks in which forest geneticists and other forestry specialists meet and work together to analyze needs, exchange experiences and develop conservation methods for selected species, including Mediterranean oaks, Populus nigra, European conifers, ‘Noble hardwoods' and ‘Social Broadleaves' (Temperate oaks and beech).
EBNIC is the European Biotechnology
Node for Interaction with China, a virtual organisation aiming to assist European
scientists and industries.
http://www.ebnic.org
IPNI (International Plant Names Index) is a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of all seed plants. It is the product of a collaboration between Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Harvard University Herbaria and Australian National Herbarium http://www.ipni.org/
The internet based Information
System on Genetic Resources (GENRES) is maintained by the Information Centre
for Genetic Resources (IGR) at the German Centre for Documentation and Information
in Agriculture (ZADI). GENRES connects the centralized meta, factual and evaluated
data on genetic resources in Germany at the IGR with the decentralized data
existing in institutions involved in GENRES.
http://www.genres.de/genres_int/index-e.htm
‘Elaboration of recommendations for sustainable forestry to protect the genetic variation of forest tree and shrub species' is a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry aimed at analysing the influence of forest management on the genetic variation of forest tree and shrub species. http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/OekoGenetik/Projects/P_Bernd.htm
The Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands CGN at: http://www.plant.wageningen-ur.nl/about/Biodiversity/Cgn/about/ is part of Plant Research International at: http://www.plant.wageningen-ur.nl/. CGN executes the national plant genetic resources programme for food and agriculture of the Netherlands and holds collections of several agricultural and horticultural crops.
The Biodiversity and Genetic
Resources (BIO) programme of CIFOR http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/research/conservation/
is designed to facilitate improvements in the sustainable use of forest biological
diversity at the landscape scale. This will result from an improved capability
to assess biodiversity and new insights into relationships between human interventions,
biodiversity and ecosystem processes.