- Resilient Forests
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The Resilient Forests research programme aims to ensure the long-term economic, environmental and social sustainability of forestry by creating forests that are more resilient to future uncertainty in a changing world. Resilient forests are sustainable, productive and healthy, and should represent a low-risk asset in a world experiencing changing climate, political and market volatility, and changing social norms.
The programme focuses on radiata pine and aims to de-risk and increase the productivity of mainstream New Zealand forest industry production systems. It is managed by Scion.
Programme manager: Peter Clinton
- A six-year programme (2020-2026)
- Building on work done in the Growing Confidence in Future Forests (GCFF) programme and Healthy Trees Healthy Future (HTHF) programmes
- Two major research programmes have split out from Resilient Forests: Tree Root Microbiome Programme and Scion’s Transforming Tree Phenotyping programme
- Funding from Scion’s Strategic Science Investment Fund and Forest Growers Levy Trust
- Comprises medium and short-term projects under three main research areas:
- Managing risk and uncertainty
- Productivity and wood quality
- Enhancing resilience/management of pests and diseases.
The Resilient Forests Programme has three closely inter-linked research areas:
Managing risk and uncertainty – understanding public perceptions of plantation forestry; understanding forest companies’ social and environmental activities and the way these are reported to the public. Climate change adaptation and adaptive management through a portfolio approach of forest management options
Productivity and wood quality – understanding GxExS interactions, new approaches to tree growth modelling, soil and site management, and better understanding the management factors influencing wood quality. Exploring the forest microbiome
Enhancing resilience/management of pests and diseases – growth impacts, epidemiology of common foliar diseases (red needle cast and dothistroma) and new treatment options, automonous monitoring systems for . ????
Managing risk and uncertainty – understanding public perceptions of plantation forestry; understanding forest companies’ social and environmental activities and the way these are reported to the public. Climate change adaptation and adaptive management through a portfolio approach of forest management options
Productivity and wood quality – understanding GxExS interactions, new approaches to tree growth modelling, soil and site management, and better understanding the management factors influencing wood quality. Exploring the forest microbiome
Enhancing resilience/management of pests and diseases – growth impacts, epidemiology of common foliar diseases (red needle cast and dothistroma) and new treatment options, automonous monitoring systems for . ????
Explore Resilient Forests workstreams:
Resilient Forests News
Modelling an intricate disease life-cycle
Research to understand the fundamentals of the red needle cast (RNC) life cycle has quantified the climatic drivers of the disease. A Scion team, led
Advances in autonomous forest measurement
Laser scanning technology which accurately describes and measures – or ‘phenotypes’-individual trees is advancing rapidly. Forest managers and tree breeders are keen to adopt automated
Reporting social responsibility
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to a company’s efforts to take responsibility for its impacts on society and the environment. Benefits likely