Cataloguing in situ protection of genetic resources for major commercial forest trees in British Columbia

Loss of genetic diversity can be due to a variety of causes and might take place unnoticed even in widespread and frequent species. In situ reserves can be a very efficient method of protecting genetic diversity in tree species if they are sufficiently large to sustain adequate populations and spatially well distributed to protect populations adapted to a range of environmental conditions. We use a geographical information system (GIS) based approach to assess the level of in situ protection based on forest inventory data. Recently revised maps of seed planning units used for management of genetic resources for 11 major commercial conifer species reflect geographic variation as observed in genetic tests. On this basis we investigate how well populations are represented in protected areas. Due to a systematic expansion of protected areas in the 1990s, it appears that conifer genetic resources are now well represented in protected areas. In this study we identify the remaining gaps for in situ protection and discuss implications for genetic resource management. Further, we evaluate protected areas for their importance with respect to gene conservation, and determine whether ground truthing is necessary to confirm that populations in protected areas are sufficiently large.