Appendixes (continue)

Appendix 8
FOREST GENETIC RESOURCES PRIORITIES (BY REGION, SPECIES AND OPERATION)

Notes:

General. This Appendix represents an up-dated and revised version of the earlier tables which appeared as Appendix 8 of the Report of the Fourth Session of the Panel (1977). The Panel recognized that many of the priority ratings must be considered tentative, and in many cases information is inadequate to allow even a tentative rating to be made. Nevertheless, the present attempt should be useful in relating the priorities of various operations to each other and in indicating the many gaps in knowledge which exist. Periodic revision of the priorities will be needed in the light of the better information which it is hoped will be forthcoming from foresters and tree breeders all over the world.

Species importance rating (columns 1 to 3). The importance rating for a species is expected to remain constant over one to several decades, however, priority ratings for individual operations may change to reflect progress in genetic resources work. New species are also likely to be added to reflect new priorities, e.g. in the present table, species suitable for the production of energy are prominent and many such species have been added to those identified at earlier meetings of the Panel.

Operational priority rating (columns 4–13). Four priority ratings are used, as follows:

Relationship of operational priorities to species importance. Generally, individual species would not have a higher priority for a particular operation than for their importance rating, except in the case of conservation for endangered or vulnerable species. Other exceptions which exist are those potentially valuable species, in which further study on distribution, variation and utilization is considered likely to lead to an up-grading of their species priority rating, either in their native habitat or as exotics; and those species used in breeding, for example, for disease resistance.

Species of importance rating 1 normally merit priority 1 or, alternatively, have been classified 4, in at least one operation.

(E) signifies endangered with extinction or severe depletion of the gene-pool.