Australasia's home for timber news and information

New Zealand government invests $2.5 million in forestry

The New Zealand Government is investing NZ$2.5 million over a maximum of five years to support research that will increase the productivity of the forestry industry. Source: Timberbiz, Lesprom, Radio New Zealand

New Zealand Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce said the funding will support the development of new technologies that can be used by pine tree breeders to reduce the time it takes to breed and plant new improved trees by 15 years.

The forest industry is investigating new tree breeding techniques that could more than halve the time it takes to develop new varieties of pine.

The Government is contributing half the cost of the NZ$5 million research program.

The Radiata Pine Breeding Company has formed a partnership between 16 forestry organisations, Scion and the University of Canterbury to research and develop the new technologies.

Chief executive for The Radiata Pine Breeding Company John Butcher said using established selective breeding techniques can take up to 30 years to reach the stage of planting new tree varieties.

He said the research program was looking to use newly emerging genomic selection technology to speed up that process with potential savings of many millions of dollars.

“You can make selections very early, you can make them within a few months of making a cross and getting a seed to germinate, because you get the DNA and check it against a range of genetic markers … you use that information directly to get your selections into the forest.”

He said the time from creating a new germ plasm to getting sufficient quantities to take it into the forest as a commercial planting is 30 years ¬– which he said genomic selection could reduce to under 15 years.

Butcher said the genomic selection program did not involve genetic modification of pine trees.

“Science and innovation are major drivers of economic growth and international competitiveness. The Government is committed to ensuring we invest in purpose-driven research that benefits New Zealand,” Joyce said.

“The New Zealand forestry industry directly employs 20,000 people and contributes an annual gross income of NZ$5 billion. This investment will contribute to the industry’s further expansion.

“The project will bring companies and industry bodies together to find solutions, through science and research, that will enable us to develop a more technologically advanced and economically successful forestry industry.”

Research and investments general manager for Scion Russell Burton said the aim was to enhance the productivity of pinus radiata forests and grow them in the most sustainable way, using technology that will allow the industry to target individual trees.

With modern technology, he said it was possible to identify trees in the same way that a farmer might know each one of his stock by number.

Burton said it’s enormously helpful to the wood processing industry if it knows more about each individual tree, because that makes it possible to target logs into specific
applications.