The Role of ex situ Conservation of Trees in Living Stands

Guidelines & Technical Notes' is a continuaton of the series of Technical Notes from Danida Forest Seed Centre.DFSC publications are distributed free of charge.Danida Forest Seed Centre (DFSC) is a Danish non-profit institute which has been working with development and transfer of know-how in management of tree genetic resources since 1969.The development objective of DFSC is to contribute to improve the benefits of growing trees for the well-being of people in developing countries.DFSC's programme is financed by the Danish International Development Assistance (Danida).Print: Toptryk A/S, Graasten Protected areas make important contributions to forest conservation, protect many forest values, and represent very considerable achievements towards conserving forest genetic resources.It is clear, however, that existing protected areas are not, in themselves, sufficient to achieve or sustain all forest conservation goals.Many are in a wrong place, of inadequate size, too disconnected from their surrounding environment, and inadequately protected from pressures which compromise their conservation value (Kanowski 2001).It is estimated that more than 8000 tree species are endangered according to the World Conservation and Monitoring Centre (WCMC 2001).Only about 12% of these are recorded in protected areas and only 8% are known to be in cultivation