Development of biotechnology programmes for energy forestry

Dramatic gains in tree growth can be achieved by today's breeding techniques. However, much of these gains may be lost due to pathogen-caused diseases and insect attack. The use of pesticides in energy plantations is undersirable because of their possible ecological impacts and public concern regarding their harmful side effects. Conventional breeding programmes, geared to produce pest-resistant trees, are slow and require a large number of plants and space. Therefore, alternative techniques which use more powerful tools have to be employed to accelerate the processes that produce effective methods of pest control. Biotechnology, employing cell and tissue culture, cell fusion, recombinant DNA technology for cell cloning, and genetic engineering, is a new and rapidly developing field/science. Moreover, it seems ideally suited for the development of pest-resistant plant material for energy plantations.

Because of the timeliness of this technology in developing pest-resistant plant material, the International Energy Agency (IEA) Bioenergy Agreement initiated a special project to examine this proposal. The present paper summarizes the results of several workshops held by the representatives of the IEA member countries on this topic. Different techniques of biotechnology, their beneficial effects as well as some of their weaknesses, are discussed.