Team 2: Ecology, development and management of forest ecosystems

Acronym of the team: Ecology, development and management of forest ecosystems

Team Leader: REDJAIMIA Lylia

The forest is a living environment where many unique species find what they need not only to live but also to reproduce. Some of these endangered species already provide or have the potential to provide humans with essential food and medicines. Faced with this, pressure is growing to protect a greater part of existing natural ecosystems. This can only be done to the detriment of industrial uses of the forest. It is therefore necessary to increase the yield per hectare to meet the needs of the population for products of all kinds. It is increasingly universally accepted that the use of plantation forestry will prove essential. Indeed, the demarcation of areas allocated to the intensive production of woody material and the use of fast-growing species and varieties is more likely to make it possible to meet the demand for products more efficiently while making it possible to reduce the impact of harvest in natural ecosystems. To meet national demand while minimizing the areas reserved for industrial plantations, it will be necessary to take advantage of all advances in science to identify sites with the best potential and develop high-performance varieties. Obtaining the latter will be possible thanks to the integration of new biotechnological tools with classic genetic improvement.
The objective of this research team is to understand the functioning of forest ecosystems in a changing environment both from a physical point of view (climate) and from the point of view of social expectations (production, protection functions, impact of management and practices) through plant breeding, variety protection, as well as the preservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources, is to make varieties available to forestry today and in the future high quality, high yield, diversified and robust for the most diverse cultivation and use methods.

Running as of 31/12/2018