Gavin Matthew in front of Rayonier Advanced Materials plant at Fernandina Beach, Florida, US
The Gottestein Trust has released a new report by Gottstein Fellow Gavin Matthew who has recently completed a study tour to the USA and New Zealand and his published report is titled: Genetic modification (GM) research and deployment in plantation forestry with lessons from Australian agriculture, New Zealand, and south-east United States forest industries. Source: Timberbiz
Mr Matthew has more than 20 years of diverse experience in industry policy advocacy, natural resource and forest management, wood processing and consulting and is a senior policy manager with the Australian Forest Products Assocation.
He holds a Bachelor of Science (Forestry) degree and a Bachelor of Economics degree, both from the Australian National University, and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment.
The intent of this project was to explore whether, with the appropriate policy settings, research and regulatory controls, we can utilise genetic modification (GM) technologies in plantation forestry in Australia, to address future increasing wood fibre demand and other looming challenges. This analysis was informed by learnings gained from existing GM technologies used in New Zealand (NZ), south-east United States (US), and Australian agricultural crops.
This report details the status of the GM issue, the main policy and regulatory drivers, and potential benefits and outcomes from relevant GM technologies research and deployment for plantation forestry.
The paper is intended to be a broad observation of the topic compared with a detailed scientific piece on GM technologies and their application. The thinking is that understanding Australia’s social, environmental economic, political, and regulatory environment in relation to potentially deploying GM technologies for commercial tree species and gaining learnings from similar countries, is as important as the science.
You can download the paper here 2020_Gottstein_Fellowship_Report_Tree_Improvement
