Insight/Opinion

Research Programme is vital to South African Forestry

Terry Nelson

Foresters, international visitors and TPCP staff during a field visit to a Sirex infested Pine compartment.

Most people do not appreciate the importance of the forestry industry to South Africa. While occupying only 1.1% of the land area, 56% less than that used for maize cultivation, forest products were valued at 23.6 billion Rand in 2007, 106% more than the value of the maize output.

Forest products were the third largest export contributor to the economy that year being 12.2 billion Rand while metal ores earned 31.1 billion and coal 23.7 billion. These two leading export commodities are, by their very nature, a finite and diminishing resource, while forestry is infinitely renewable. The plantations consist of 53% pine species, 38% eucalyptus, 87% Wattle and 1% other types.

Great debate has raged about forests consuming a disproportionate amount of water, also a very limited resource in this country, but in fact forests use between 4% and 8% of the run-off water whereas agriculture as a whole uses about 60% of all available water; surface and ground water.

At the forefront of protecting this industry against natural threats are The Forestry and Agriculture Biotechnology Institute, (FABI) and the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP).

FABI was established at the University of Pretoria on the foundation of the highly successful and internationally acclaimed TPCP. The TPCP, initiated in 1990, has supported South African Forestry for nearly two decades, becoming an Institution of that industry. The Staff of FABI have also had long associations with the Citrus and Subtropical Fruit Industries as well as other programmes linked to forestry and agricultural crops. Although only in existence since 1997, FABI is by no means an emerging new venture, but rather an amalgamation of a tremendous base of expertise in Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology.

FABI has grown rapidly since its establishment and now includes approximately 180 participants. The group is made up of 15 academic staff, 100 post graduate (M.Sc., Ph.D.) students, post doctoral fellows, research visitors and a small core of support staff. 30 languages are spoken by members of the FABI team, which is a remarkably multinational and multicultural group.

TPCP is dedicated to predicting, analyzing and finding remedies to natural threats to the forestry industry in South Africa. The TPCP provides the entire forestry industry of South Africa with support in the field of tree health and, more particularly, Forest Pathology and Forest Entomology. The group’s work includes projects not only in South Africa, but in other parts of Africa, South America, South East Asia, Europe, Australia and North America. On establishment the TPCP had a core focus on a single Eucalyptus disease, but rapidly grew to provide the South African Forestry Industry with a full spectrum of support dealing with diseases and insect pests.

The TPCP, as the largest single programme dealing with forest pests and diseases anywhere in the world, is a multi-disciplinary group consisting of entomologists, epidemiologists, microbiologists and molecular biologists and is geared to meet many of the challenges faced by the forest plantations. It is also internationally recognized and is able to call on the support of a global community of tree health specialists with whom the programme scientists regularly interact.

Prof Mike Wingfield Mondi Professor of Forest Pathology, the Director of the FABI, Director of the TPCP.

At the 19th annual meeting of the TPCP in Pretoria on the 12th and 13th May 2009, the programme’s director Professor Mike Wingfield, in his opening address, emphasized the co-operation necessary, both locally and internationally, to fight threats to the industry by pathogens and insect pests. Prof Wingfield stressed that their commercial partners should never expect the programme to produce a “magic bullet” that would combat all threats at a stroke. New organisms would constantly appear in the nurseries and plantations, each of which would each need to be identified and analyzed and an appropriate response found. Some problems are slow to emerge; pitch canker was found in nursery stocks in the 1990s and has now been found in mature pine trees in the Cape, while others such as the Eucalyptus gall wasp first seen around the Mediterranean in 2000 had arrived in South Africa by late 2007.

100 years ago the Eurasian wood wasp Sirex noctilio, first appeared outside its native range, in pine plantations of New Zealand. This invasive pest, together with its fungus symbiont, spread first to Australia and in the 1980’s to South American. Sirex continues to spread and in the early 1990’s appeared for the first time in South Africa. Just two years ago the wasp was encountered in New York and it is now known to be established in eastern North America. In every country where S. noctilio has become established, it has resulted in considerable damage and cost to local economies. There can be no doubt that the global spread of Sirex is set to continue. The research effort required to contain the negative impacts of this scourge to forestry is being actively pursued within the TPCP.

Substantial attention has been given to control options that included deployment of various biological control agents such as the wasp parasitoid Ibalia leucospoides and the parasitic nematode Deladenus siricidicola. These agents, with practices that reduce plant stress in plantations, stopped the spread of the wasp and have yielded impressive control of Sirex in areas where Sirex first appeared. However, the low levels of success in biological control in KwaZulu Natal have been a cause for considerable concern during the past few years. A huge effort by the TPCP in 2008 produced nematodes to inoculate some 30000 trees. Follow-up research, with industry partners, showed a significant improvement in the situation. It is hoped that this will continue and that the programme can now focus on the development of new biological control agents and treating the problem at the invasion fronts.

By far the most important disease problem affecting the industry at the moment is the previously mentioned pine pitch canker and a strong base of research support has been built within the TPCP around this topic.
Presenting an African perspective on tree diseases Prof. Jolanda Roux pointed out that insects and wind-born pathogens know no national boundaries and can rapidly spread to South Africa if introduced into neighboring countries and vice versa. This problem is exacerbated by the virtually uncontrolled movement of people and plant material across our borders. Fungi and bacteria pathogenic to plantation trees can adapt to them from indigenous hosts, making the early detection and resolution of the problem even more difficult.

Aiming at a balanced offering of entomology and pathology projects and extending its multidisciplinary set up, the TPCP has grown its entomology activities with the appointment of a field entomology extension agent and a research forest entomologist who will be employed shortly.
Biological control of forest insects has become a core focus of TPCP projects and this is a trend that will likely continue in the future. Excellent progress has been made in establishing biological controls of a number of pests including the establishment of quarantine facilities to make this work possible.

Alongside the TPCP the Department of Science and Technology (DST)/National Research Foundation (NRF) Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biology (CTHB) was also established within FABI. This programme is focused on the health of native trees. There is, for instance, concern about the disease and death of indigenous baobabs from an, as yet unknown, cause. The CTHB also provides very substantial synergy with the TPCP.

Research projects of the TPCP provide an important foundation for the pest and disease clinic of the programme. For example, techniques used for pitch canker diagnostics were developed through TPCP research and other problem-solving opportunities have also emerged from the programme’s activities.

Students visiting the Kruger National Park herbarium during field work in the park. (Irene Barnes, Mrs. Thembi Khoza of Sanparks, Vuledzani Muthelo)

In order to be able to capitalize on Government support programmes such as THRIP, student education has to be a core component of the TPCP. Post graduate student research projects on pests and diseases of forest trees provide the foundation of knowledge that is applied by the programme to the benefit of the forestry industry. With the education of students at MSc and PhD levels forming a core activity of the programme, industry contributions are not only solving their own problems, but also significantly contribute to manpower development in South Africa.

The extension services of the TPCP are central to the programme. Students and staff have visited plantation areas and nurseries regularly, accumulating 593 person days in the field during 2008. The extension services include the running of a pest and disease clinic, the participation in field days and in the production of diagnostic aids.

More information:

 Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute

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