Why spend money on a teak tree breeding program?

Unfortunately, no replacement was found for Cameron or Davidson as an officer in charge of the teak tree improvement program. The result was leaving PNG in an award position. A large amount of time and money had been spent to bring PNG in sight of the teak timber trade in the Pacific.

Our records showed that in 1972, we had established a clonal teak seed orchard of some 16 hectares. Initially there were some 20 seed trees cloned from local plantations and 6 selected parents of Thailand and 6 from India. Additional candidate seed trees selection was identified of some 100 trees (Brown River and Kerevat) but were eventually lost to logging operations. The development of these orchards in 1962 and 1965 began production with first flowering in 1964 and 1965. they demonstrated the need for further improvement work. As the last man standing, with some tree breeding background, I took on the custodianship of the teak program. The retention of the two clonal seed orchards was a priority because of the threat of uncontrolled logging. We were assisted by provincial forest officer sand their staff. Thanks to quick action by Ambrose Jamomo, he stopped the illegal operator from felling the Mt Lawes seed orchard.

At Kerevat we lost the little Vudal orchard as section by section was cut by squatters etc who dubiously claimed ownership of the land. I was on the PNGFA/ITTO balsa project but unable to influence the illegal activities. Alan Cameron did establish for teak trials such as:

• an international Provence trials. • evaluation seed tree progeny with putative control pollination progeny. they were supposed to be of a distinctive Indian province crossed with other hybrids. Even today wildings demonstrate good features of Indian teak- good stem from and log length The information from this article comes from tropical forest research notes; Howcroft field reports and a report on the history of teak tree breeding program; for training of field staff In recent times, an ACIAR/UNRE project was established to develop further the teak tree improvement program

Why spend money on a teak tree breeding program? Addressing the need for availability, quality, quantity, and self sufficiency

If PNG were to progress with teak as a commercial species, it would need a good source of quality seed. Good seed is in high demand and many countries do not want competitors. The current seed sources other than those variable sources left by the Germans are not genetically satisfactory. PNG needs to be self-sufficient in high quality seed sources The first teak introductions were between 1890-1900 by the then German administration. They are said to be from Burma. A stand at Bogia (north coast Madang) displayed excellent from and growth. The first Australian PNG plantation at Kerevat were established in 1950. This was followed by Brown River in 1955. The planting rate reached a peak in 1967-1970 of 280-320 ha/annum.19

19 Davidson/Howcroft 1972 Tropical forest research Note SR1 Jan 1973 80