How to adapt our forests to climate change thanks to new species and provenances?
Description
Tuesday 2 August 2022 from 11:30 to 12:30
How to adapt our forests to climate change thanks to new species and provenances?
Welcome: Pascal BALLEUX, President of the Cercle Forêt Bois
Moderator: Nicolas DASSONVILLE, SRFB, Formation, Reforestation & Trees for Future
Introduction: Céline TELLIER, Minister for the Environment, Nature, Forestry, Rural Affairs and Animal Welfare
Brigitte MUSCH, Geneticist, Head of the Conservatoire Génétique des Arbres Forestiers, ONF (PARIS, F)
Assisted migration of species and provenances as a strategy for adapting forests to climate change
In France, as in Belgium, forests are suffering from climate change and many species are in great difficulty, particularly due to the increased frequency and intensity of droughts. Faced with the observed dieback phenomena, foresters must implement strategies to adapt forests to climate change in order to maintain a productive and multifunctional forest in the long term. Among the measures envisaged is the assisted northward migration of new tree species or new provenances of existing species of more southerly origin.
Assisted migration is based, on the one hand, on the potential better adaptation of southern trees to the future climate and, on the other hand, on the enrichment of the genetic pool of species already present with genes conferring better resistance, especially to drought, from individuals of the same species or similar species (e.g. hybridisation between Mediterranean oaks and sessile oaks or between Mediterranean firs and pectin firs)
In France, assisted migration experiments have been set up via various projects. We will take a look at some of them and the main lessons that can be learned from them.
o Witness 1: Alain SERVAIS, qualified attaché, SPW, ARNE DNF, Head of the seed counter, Marche-en-Famenne (B)
“The seed: invisible but essential genetic biodiversity to mitigate the risks of climate change.
Need for high genetic diversity – Mixing of provenances at planting – Assisted migration (species/provenances).
Dictionary of recommended provenances: addition of more southern provenances.
Obstacles: compliance with legislation (Forestry Code, Directive 199/105/EC, etc.) and shortages of seeds and seedlings.
o Witness 2: Edith JOURDAN & Marc GAILLY, Pépinières Marc Gailly-Jourdan SA, Paliseul (B)
Nurserymen are the artisans of assisted migration. Through cultivation contracts ordered by owners/managers and on its own initiative, the Gailly-Jourdan nursery is keen to develop the cultivation of new species/provenances.
The nursery faces two difficulties, the supply of seeds and the adaptation of cultivation techniques
Target audience: public and private owners and managers, municipal officials, experts, technicians, nurserymen, forestry contractors, teachers and students …
