Forest Science Institute of Vietnam

I. The Importance of Forest Tree Gene Resources

Forest tree varieties and their gene resources management and conservation play a very important role for the implementation of all national plantation programmes either in full commercial plantations or as dispersed trees for timber production, environmental protection and/or special use of the forests and their resource.

Following the tasks and work plan as shaped out by the ”Five-Million-Hectare Plantation Programme”, the annual rate of new plantation and enrichment planting, for the period 1999-2010, goes up to 300,000-400,000 hectares per year. Therefore, the task of producing seedlings in nurseries becomes enormous, as billions of seedlings are tobe produced for and delivered to the plantation sites. However, besides this, activities should go ahead and well in advance to protect, to maintain and then build up the valuable tropical forest tree gene resources so that more and more promising tree species, rare and precious timber producers can be gradually involved in the plantation programme on a larger scale.

The main principle to be adopted is to carry out conservation for development and to develop forest resources based on sound conservation strategies so that the approach ”improve-as-you-plant” can be put into practice. The paper deals with the results obtained through research on conservation and the efforts made to plan and establish conservation-cum-seed production areas, in particular with some of the tree species selected from the three fundamental target groups as described later.

Latest news

• Project: Study on integrated management of insect pests and diseases on Docynia indica in northern Vietnam
• Project: Study on integrated pest management of major leaf insect pests and stem borer beetles in Acacia hybrid, A. mangium and A. auriculiformis in Vietnam
• Project: Research and develop an integrated management program for control of cinnamon pests in some main cinnamon growing areas (Northern mountainous region and Quang Nam province)
• Project: Pilot plantation and completion of planting techniques of technologically advanced germplasm of Acacia auriculiformis (AA42, AA53, AA56, AA92, AA95) for sawlog in the southeast and south central.
• Project "Research on selection of varieties and intensive afforestation techniques of Prunus arborea (Blume) Kalkman for providing lager timber in the Northeast and Northwest regions, Vietnam"

Oldest news

• Research on possible use of a number of Streptomyces strains for the control of Damping - off disease of Pinus merkusii caused by Fusarium oxysporum
• Characteristics of soil for Pinus merkusii forest plantation and effect of the latter on forest soil fertility (1980 - 1984)
• Review of existing experience and research on new models of agroforestry for each region (1981 - 1985)
• Propagation of dendrocalamus by air -layering
• Strategy for genetic conservation of forest plant species in Vietnam