Seeing trees and forests for the future: assessment of trade-offs and potentials to breed and manage forests to meet sustainability goals
Coordinator: Katri Kärkkäinen, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Finland
katri.karkkainen (at) luke.fi
Other partners: LV, NO, SE
Duration: 2022-2025 (to be confirmed)
Project objective: Assess4EST will use novel genomic breeding tools and introduce new features to national growth and yield simulators to assess possibilities to combine sustainability goals in forest management by studying the impacts of genetic variation in the regeneration methods: even-aged planting with advanced generation improved material vs. natural regeneration in even and uneven aged stands. The project will concentrate on assessing traits important for sustainability goals: growth, increasing resilience and adaptability of forests to rapid climate change, as well as wood quality suitable for products that store carbon and substitute more emission-intensive and non-renewable products.
Abstract:
The project addressed how forest management and tree breeding can work together to support sustainable forestry, balancing timber production with biodiversity conservation and climate regulation. It focused on improving tree breeding methods and assessing how genetically improved forest regeneration material can contribute to forest productivity and resilience under changing climatic conditions.
The project combined genomic selection, non-destructive wood-quality phenotyping and long-term trials to accelerate the breeding of fast-growing and resilient trees. It also investigated the genetic effects of continuous cover forestry and compared the financial performance of different forest management approaches. Multi-objective optimisation showed that forests using genetically improved material required less intensive management intervention to meet national timber demand targets, creating greater potential for set-aside and conservation-oriented regimes.
The scenario analyses demonstrate the potential of coordinated genetic improvement and forest management to help balance timber production, biodiversity conservation and climate regulation at landscape and national scales.
ForestValue enables international collaboration producing regional solutions for sustainable forestry.