5. Identification of national priorities

5.1. List of priority species

A seminar of the International Board for Plants Genetic Resources (currently IPGRI), held 23-25 September 1981 in Kathmandu, listed 25 tree species of Nepal as threatened and vanishing (Table 4). It was noted that a more subtle loss of biological diversity was occurring through the loss of genetic variation within species. The possible reasons may be the outright destruction of tree populations, reduction in range and fragmentation of populations into isolated units that are so small that inbreeding becomes a significant factor in survival.

Table 3. List of threatened and vanishing forest tree species of Nepal (Anon 1982)

Scientific name		Scientific name
1.	Abies pindrow	14.	Larix griffithii
2.	Abies smithiana	15.	Michelia champaca
3.	Acacia catechu	16.	Myrica nagi
4.	Adina cordifolia	17.	Pinus roxburghii
5.	Alnus nepalensis	18.	Pinus wallichiana
6.	Boehmeria rugulosa	19.	Pterocarpus marsupium
7.	Bombax ceiba	20.	Quercus semecarpifolia
8.	Bassia butyracea	21.	Quercus species
9.	Cedrela toona	22.	Rhododendron arboreum
10.	Choerospondias axillaris	23.	Shorea robusta
11.	Dalbergia latifolia	24.	Terminalia species
12.	Dalbergia sissoo	25.	Tsuga dumosa
13.	Gmelina arborea

In addition, in this seminar some tree species from Terai, the Middle Hills and Himalayan forests were identified to be threatened and vanishing.

Table 4. List of species identified as threatened and vanishing in Terai, Middle hills and Himalayan forests.

	Terai	Middle hills	Himalayan forest
1	Shorea robusta (in danger of extinction)	Bassia butyracea	Pinus wallichiana
2	Dalbergia latifolia (vanishing fast)	Pinus roxburghii	Tsuga dumosa
3	Bombax ceiba	Alnus nepalensis	Larix griffithii
4	Gmelina arborea	Choerospondias axillaris	Quercus semecarpifolia
5	Terminalia spp.	Pinus wallichiana	Abies smithiana
6	Michelia champaca	Rhododendron arboreum	Abies pindrow
7	Pterocarpus marsupium	Quercus spp.
8	Adina cordifolia	Boehmeria rugulosa
9	Cedrela toona	Myrica nagi
10	Acacia catechu (disappearing from the natural habitat)
11	Dalbergia sissoo

The first meeting of the TIP was held at the DFRS in 1992. Many professionals from different departments under the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, and the Forest Tree Improvement Project (FORTIP) representative attended the meeting. This meeting listed ten nationally important forest tree species that require breeding and propagation research (Table 6).

Table 5. Ten important tree species identified at the first meeting of the Tree improvement programme in 1992

Scientific name	Vernacular name
1. Acacia auriculiformis	(exotic species)
2. Acacia nilotica	Babul
3. Alnus nepalensis	Utis
4. Bamboos	Bans
5. Dalbergia sissoo	Sissoo
6. Eucalyptus camaldulensis	Masala
7. Ficus spp
8. Pinus patula	Patle salla
9. Pinus roxburghii	Khote salla
10. Tectona grandis	Teak, Sagawan

After the discussion it was agreed at the meeting that, to avoid duplication, each institution would carry out a specified activity. The list of species allotted for the DFRS to conduct tree breeding and propagation activities included:

• Alnus nepalensis

• Eucalyptus camaldulensis

• Artocarpus lakoocha

• Pinus roxburghii

In addition, the DRFS would also establish potted seed orchard of Dalbergia sissoo from the juvenile cuttings. See Appendix 4 for more details.