Tieme Wanders

We evaluated the genetic diversity of teak provenances at a newly established provenance trial with 52 provenances collected from Africa, South America and Asia in Tain II Forest Reserve in Central Ghana. This provenance collection / trial was established to widen the genetic basis for Teak establishment in West Africa. Using Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) we analysed the genetic diversity of these provenances.  Results of the study revealed that, although acquired from  a wide geographical range, most  Teak provenances in the trial belong to only two distinct groups that are closely related. The implication of this finding is that, for breeding, a wider range of provenances are needed from the original Teak distribution areas and more specifically from Southern India. We conclude that urgent protection of older existing sources of genetic variation in Teak  as well as an improvement  of international collaboration under the Nagoya protocol with countries with  native teak populatio...

Form Ghana is a forest plantation management company based in central Ghana that produces timber and carbon credits for local and international markets. From 2017, it has worked with communities to improve livelihoods in Tain II Forest Reserve, Bono Region, through the Forest Landscape Restoration Programme. Most community land is managed under the traditional authority of chiefs and their families, and farming is the main sole source of income. This article describes how a community based approach has reduced wildfire outbreaks by 78% between 2018 and 2021. From a situation in which wildfires were frequent, where nobody felt responsible and from which everybody suffered, people now make efforts to manage the risk and help to prevent wildfire outbreaks.

The purpose of this paper was to get an orientation estimate of the genetic improvement that can be achieved applying genomics in honey bees. Firstly we simulated a common breeding programme that was supplemented by genomic preselection of queens before phenotyping of their colonies and preselection of drone-producing queens. We found additional annual genetic improvement up to 20%. Secondly we designed a programme that exploited the possible fast generation turnover of queens. We found a 21⁄4 fold genetic improvement as compared to the common programme. Although the simulations are approximate, implementation of genomics looks promising, especially for programmes with structures that differ considerably from current practice.

We evaluated the genetic diversity of teak provenances at a newly established provenance trial with 52 provenances collected from Africa, South America and Asia in Tain II Forest Reserve in Central Ghana. This provenance collection / trial was established to widen the genetic basis for Teak establishment in West Africa. Using Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) we analysed the genetic diversity of these provenances.  Results of the study revealed that, although acquired from  a wide geographical range, most  Teak provenances in the trial belong to only two distinct groups that are closely related. The implication of this finding is that, for breeding, a wider range of provenances are needed from the original Teak distribution areas and more specifically from Southern India. We conclude that urgent protection of older existing sources of genetic variation in Teak  as well as an improvement  of international collaboration under the Nagoya protocol with countries with  native teak populatio...