Reports of two regional workshops on forest genetic resources held in June 1995 have recently been published: the Report on the Workshop on North American Temperate Forest Genetic Resources and the Report on the International Boreal Forest Genetic Resources Workshop. Both workshops were organized in technical collaboration with FAO.

The Workshop on North American Temperate Forest Genetic Resources (main organizer the US Forest Service) was convened in Berkeley, California from June 12-14, 1995 to address the problems and issues concerning the conservation of North American temperate forest genetic resources. The Workshop made 12 recommendations each of which is detailed in the report. In addition, the report provides information on the status of North American temperate genetic resources, compiled from replies to a survey done in connection with the workshop in Canada, Mexico and the United States, and in countries where these resources are used as exotic plantation species. The report also describes a number of case studies relevant to the conservation of North American temperate forest genetic resources.

The International Boreal Forest Genetic Resources Workshop was held in Toronto, Canada from June 19 to 22, 1995. The main organizer was the Canadian Forest Service. The workshop brought together scientific experts on genetic conservation and management of boreal forest species from 20 countries. The experts presented reports on the status of their national programs related to boreal forest genetic resources. Individual country studies have not been included in the report, but are available from the organizer. Based on the country reports, the participants prepared a status report for boreal forest genetic resources and an international plan of action, which are presented in the report of the workshop.

The Report of the Workshop on North American Temperate Forest Genetic Resources is available from:

Genetic Resources Conservation Programme
University of California
Davis, CA 95616 USA
Fax: 916 754 8501
E-mail: [email protected]

The Report of the International Boreal Forest Genetic Resources Workshop (English/French version) is available from:

Natural Resources Canada
Canadian Forest Service
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E4
Canada

A third Workshop, organized in Sopron, Hungary in November 1995 within the framework of the European Forest Genetic Resources Network, EUFORGEN (coordinated by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, IPGRI), focussed on the conservation and sustainable use of European forest genetic resources. The Report is available from the Coordinator of the EUFORGEN Network: Mr. Jozef Turok, IPGRI, Via delle Sette Chiese 142, I-00145 Rome, Italy (Fax: (39)(6) 5750 309; e-mail: [email protected]).