Canada is one of the largest exporters of forest products in the world. To develop and transfer low environmental technology to eliminate wood infection is one of Forintek's program goals, and biotechnology is one of such technology. The application of biotechnology in forestry and wood protection has been explored to a limited extent worldwide. In order to allow the Canadian wood industry to take advantage of this enabling technology, this report summarizes various activities conducted by Forintek to stimulate the development and application of biotechnology for wood protection in Canada. The report also intends to review previously published researches on the use of biotechnology in wood protection. It will discuss the potential benefits and challenges to the applications of biotechnology in this area. It will cover the needs and opportunities of linking biotechnology and wood pest control. The future trends of the research and development will be discussed. In the last section, recommendations will be made to Forintek for devising a vision of the application of biotechnology in wood protection.
Wood is a renewable resource and plays an important role in the world economy; however, it is subject to attack from wood-degrading fungi and insects. In Canada, it is estimated that about 10 million m3 of softwood lumber is treated with anti-sapstain chemicals annually, and around 4% of the wood products are preservative treated against decay and termites. Biotechnology may help in developing more effective and low environmental impact technologies for wood pest control. In wood protection, biotechnology currently has applications in wood durability improvement, in genetic engineering for wood pest resistance, in biological protection of wood against insect, stain and decay damage, and in detection and diagnosis of wood sapstain and decay infection.
The future application of biotechnology to wood protection is likely to focus on the development of diagnostic kits for wood degrading fungi, commercialization of bio-pesticides against fungal degradation, wood surface modification by enzymes, and genetic engineering of trees for durability.
The key challenge faced by the Canadian biotechnology industry in the development and the use of biotechnology-derived products and processes of wood protection is the bio-product registration. Public attitude against the environmental release of genetically engineered organisms may also have a strong effect on the development of these bio-products.
It is recommended that Forintek take the following roles in the future development of biotechnology in wood protection: a) to provide the knowledge base and the technology to contribute to enhanced tree breeding processed for wood durability; b) to develop safe and effective deployment strategies for sapstain and decay control biotechnology-derived products; c) to provide the knowledge base and the technology for more energy efficient and environmentally friendly wood protection processes; and d) to foster the acceptance of forest biotechnology by the Canadian wood products manufacturing industry.