Biosafety considerations in the context of deployment of GE trees

According to FAO world population will increase from the current seven to nine billion by 2050. This combined with ongoing climate change will lead to increased demands for land resources for food and feed production and subsequently to changes in land use from forestry to agricultural purposes. With an increased awareness of the importance of native forests for the world’s climate, harvesting from these forests is expected to decrease and conversions of native forest land to agricultural land may also become undesirable. Another factor for consideration will be an increased demand on land resources for the production of biofuels and bioproducts. In future, forests will be planted for raw materials for the pulp and paper industry and fi ber production along with providing these new resources. In this scenario, productivity, in particular that of planted forests needs to be increased signifi cantly, while at the same time native forests must be protected from further exploitation. Genetic engineering offers a potential to significantly and in relatively short time frames increase volume and quality of forest-based raw materials, thus, providing options to reduce world wide consumption of petrochemicals and increase the use of sustainable resources. Since forests can be grown on marginal lands, competition with land resources suitable for agricultural production can be avoided. At the same time, the increased productivity from bioengineered forests will provide an option to protect native forests.