In situ and Ex situ Conservation of Commercial Tropical Trees - ITTO

258ProblemsReforestation is a high priority for Indonesia and the government is activelyworking to replant unproductive forestlands and to alleviate the accompanyingproblems of low soil fertility, erodability, and susceptibility to fire on those lands.In addition to site-related problems, the available genetic resources of manyspecies have declined alarmingly.According to Hardiyanto (1990) there are several factors that mightbe problematic to progress in tree improvement in Indonesia. (1) A great diversityof sites that might cause genotype x environment interactions and thus complicatebreeding programs. (2) A large number of tree species, with the basic biologyof many not adequately known. (3) A lack of adequate funding. (4) A lack ofqualified scientists and support staff. A successful breeding program isdependent upon adequate and continuous funding, as well as continuous staffsupport. A short-term program, say 2-3 years, will not have a significant impact(Zobel and Talbert, 1984)According Zobel and Talbert (1984), a major problem of many treeimprovement programs is the impermanence of organizations and movementof the scientific staff. Tree improvement is a long-term process and, as such, itmust have good permanent records that are maintained and handed on fromscientist to scientist. This often has not been the case. Records are sometimespoorly kept or not kept at all. And valuable information moves out with thepersonnel who leave. Often, the new scientist is a highly trained specialist whowants to do her or his “own things” and therefore the old studies that wereinherited suffer because they are only of passing interest to that person. Thelost time and wastage caused by poor records and constant personnel changescannot be overemphasized. Although not based on any credible data (none areavailable), the senior author estimated that at least 50% of the forest researchthat was initiated never comes to fruition because of a lack of care, lost ofrecords, and/or the movement of key persons.Difficulties associated with working with large, long-lived plants suchas forest trees are obvious. The size of the trees creates problems withmeasurements, crossing, seed collection, laboratory and field-testing. Age toflowering is relatively long and that also complicates breeding and testing.Conditions in the field in tropical forest areas commonly are not asgood as in temperate forests. Generally, tree breeders in Indonesia and otherSE Asian countries have to work harder than any other breeders, due to workingat isolated sites, mountainous or swampy topography, high temperature andhumidity, and heavy rainfall. All of these conditions make genetic improvementwork with trees, laborious, time-consuming, dangerous, and expensive.