The IUFRO Seed Orchard conference 2019 - Seed Orchards and Climate Change

The IUFRO Seed Orchard Conference 2019 subtitled “Seed Orchards and Climate Change” was held at Nanjing International Conference Centre in Nanjing, China on October 14–16 2019 as a continuation of activities initiated in 2007 by Professor Dag Lindgren (SLU, Sweden) with the aim of facilitating the exchange of knowledge of forest tree seed orchards as well as promoting new collaborations in seed orchard research. It was the 5^th international conference where seed orchards were the main focus, the first being held in 2007 in Umeå, Sweden.

The conference was organized under the auspices of the IUFRO Working Party 2.09.01 “Seed Orchards” and was hosted by Nanjing Forestry University (NFU) in collaboration with National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA), Key Laboratory of Forest Genetics and Biotechnology and Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China. The Chair of the conference was Jisen Shi, Professor of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding at NFU and Deputy Coordinator of the Seed Orchards WP. To attract scientists, forestry practitioners and students from a broader spectrum of related disciplines, the conference was co-organized with four IUFRO Working Parties: 2.09.03 “Seed Physiology and Technology”, 2.04.02 “Progeny Testing”, 2.02.23 “Breeding and Genetic Resources of Asian Conifers” and 2.02.07 “Larch Genetic Resources.”

The conference covered a broad variety of topics from seed orchard design and management, fertility variation and genetic diversity of seed crops, seed processing and treatment to gene conservation and adaptation of forest trees to changing climate and linking forest tree seed orchards with long-term breeding. Besides, genomic selection and its integration in forest tree improvement programs took up a substantial portion of the conference’s agenda – three of fourteen keynote presentations were dedicated to this topic.

Owing to a number of oral and poster presentations given by Chinese researchers, the conference provided a great opportunity for foreign participants to learn about China’s progress in seed orchards and forest tree improvement. For illustration, China was the World’s leading country in the forest area gain between 2010–2015, with the net gain exceeding 1.5 million hectares per year – an impressive figure that demonstrates China’s commitment to reducing the net carbon dioxide emissions.