Impact of biotechnology on forest ecosystems

Abstract

The complementary use of forest biotechnology along with traditional silvicultural programs has the potential to improve the quality of Canadian forests by promoting increased forest productivity, a reduction of exploitation pressure on forest lands, an increase in gene conservation, and improved forest management. However, these benefits could also be followed by undesirable effects such as pest adaptation to control methods, non-target pest emergence, reduction of biodiversity, and genetic pollution. Measures that could be implemented to circumvent these potentially undesirable effects are discussed. -from Author