Feasibility and proposed outline of a global review of forest biotechnology | Land Portal

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Date of publication: 
décembre 2004
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ISBN / Resource ID: 
FAODOCREP:1c96bcd4-985b-5a8f-9e5b-73246816f2a8
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© FAO. FAO is committed to making its content freely available and encourages the use, reproduction and dissemination of the text, multimedia and data presented. Except where otherwise indicated, content may be copied, printed and downloaded for private study, research and teaching purposes, and for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that appropriate acknowledgement of FAO as the source and copyright holder is given and that FAO's endorsement of users' views, products or services is not stated or implied in any way.

The current working definition of biotechnolology used by the FAO refers to any means of developing or using living organisms to produce or alter or improve a product or organism for a specified purpose (UNEP 1992; Schmidt 1997), which would include prehistoric plant and animal domestication. A more current perspective specifies biotechnology having commercial applications, featuring deliberate manipulation of the genetic components of living organisms or their products (IBPGR 1991; Iowa State University 1994). These definitions, although accurate for the specific purposes for which they were intended, contribute to the prevalent confusion surrounding biotechnology and in particular forest biotechnology. In some cases, biotechnology is associated with genetic modification, and in others it can be used to define a broad spectrum of modern methods applicable to forest science. We propose a compromise between the two; more specific than the former, yet less utilitarian than the latter: “the use of the whole or targeted portions of organisms to provide quantitative information and/or desired products, including the isolation and/or manipulation of specific genetic components of that organism”.

Auteurs et éditeurs

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s): 

Forestry Department
Forest management Division

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