The Role of Forest Tree Breeding for the 21st Century

Abstract

Increasing demand on wood as a raw material will also demand corresponding methods to achieve this goal. One of the cheapest alternatives to achieve increasing demands on wood, both in quantity and quality, is to improve tree breeding. In the next century significant changes in quality of the environment are expected (e.g. consequences of environmental pollution, global warming etc.). Since the breeding goals (e.g. maximum yield) could be achieved only in defined ecological conditions, for undefined ecological conditions a new breeding goal — maximum adaptability — is proposed.