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The objectives of
the APFORGEN workshop
were to discuss recent updates of national
forest genetic resources conservation
and management (FGR C&M) in the
region, to discuss the development of
national FGR programmes in the participating
countries, to revisit the draft APFORGEN
Action Plan, to explore more effective
means for information dissemination
between the participating organisations
and countries in the region, to explore
resource generation strategy or ideas
and to identify other areas of common
interest for collaboration
Representatives
from 12 of the 14 countries currently
participating in the programme present
at the workshop were from Cambodia,
China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka,
Thailand, and Vietnam. Bangladesh and
Pakistan were unable to participate.
Several Indian scientists and individual
researchers from Malaysia, Thailand
and Vanuatu also attended the workshop
as observers. The workshop was organized
by Asia
Pacific Association of Forest Research
Institutions (APAFRI) and
International
Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI)
in collaboration with the Indian
Council of Forestry Research and Education
(ICFRE). All the participants
except one stayed on to attend the APFC
21st Session.
The
workshop started with an update on APFORGEN
activities. The major achievements of
the programme during the past three
years included the publication of the
Inception Workshop proceedings (2003),
nine priority species information sheets,
APFORGEN brochures,
establishment and updating of the APFORGEN
Web site (www.apforgen.org)
and organizing two sub regional meetings
of the national coordinators. An important
recent activity is a project funded
by the International Tropical Timber
Organization (ITTO) entitled “Strengthening
national capacity and regional collaboration
for sustainable use of forest genetic
resources in tropical Asia” that
started in February 2006, directly involving
7 of the 14 APFORGEN
countries (Cambodia, India, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand).
At
the workshop the national coordinators
presented updates on policies, organizations,
scientific projects, conservation strategies
and international collaboration in FGR
in their respective countries. There
were numerous newly introduced policies
and research initiatives relevant to
FGR C&M. In addition, the 12 national
coordinators explained why forest genetic
diversity matters and what kind of new
initiatives would be needed from their
perspective. The activities suggested
were: establishment of national forest
genetic resource conservation networks,
training of scientists, joint research/conservation
projects among member countries, development
of standards, integrated conservation
and tree improvement programmes and
facilitation of exchange of genetic
materials.
The
draft action plans proposed during previous
meetings were reviewed. Quite a number
of the proposed actions have already
been initiated by participating countries.
It was decided that these action plans
would need to be updated as the scenario
in many countries had changed during
the past years. National coordinators
will review and provide updates and
submit the revised versions to the APFORGEN
secretariat.
The
workshop decided that the APFORGEN
Web site will play a key role in information
dissemination between member countries.
To accomplish this, regular efforts
should be made to update the Web site
and also a suggestion was made to post
success stories in FGR C&M on it
for dissemination.
A
discussion was held on genetic diversity
in forest rehabilitation. This discussion
revealed that several APFORGEN
countries have important reforestation
and rehabilitation activities and that
these efforts are likely to be strengthened
in the future. The understanding of
the importance of genetic diversity
in forest rehabilitation varies between
the countries. However, the level of
scientific knowledge on genetic diversity
in rehabilitation is low throughout
the countries. There is a strong need
for a project to assist countries to
increase genetic diversity of planted
trees through scientific and research
related activities. (For more information
see attachment 3)
The
Indonesian national coordinator Dr.
Nur Masripatin, with some support from
the Indonesian government, established
a national APFORGEN
secretariat shortly after the Inception
Workshop of 2003. This successful Indonesian
effort could be replicated and Indonesia
has volunteered to assist other countries
in this task. In addition, Indonesia
has volunteered to host the next
APFORGEN national coordinators’
meeting scheduled for 2007 or 2008.
Attachments:
1. Programme
2.
Participants
3. Minutes
of discussion on forest rehabilitation
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