Establishment of a National Network of Forest Stands for Sustainable Native Seed Production in Lebanon. 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................ ...................................... 6 2 ANTECEDENTS .................................................................................. 7 3 OBJECTIVES ................................ ..................................................... 10 4 INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS ON SEED TRADE ............................ 10 4.1 AOSCA SCHEME ................................ ................................................ 11 5 ADAPTATION OF THE CD OE SCHEME TO LEBANON ......................... 12 5.1 DEFINITIONS ................................ ...................................................... 12 5.2 REGIONS OF P ROVENANCE ................................ .................................... 13 5.3 BASIC M ATERIAL ................................ ................................................. 15 5.3.1 Seed source ................................ ................................................. 15 5.3.2 Select stand ................................ ................................................. 16 5.4 CERTIFICATION CATEGORIES ................................ ................................... 17 5.4.1 Identified ................................ ..................................................... 17 5.4.2 Selected ................................ ....................................................... 18 5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HE T IDENTIFICATION OF SEED LOTS ........................ 18 5.6 SCHEME UTILISATION ................................ ........................................... 19 6 RESULTS ................................ .......................................................... 21 6.1 REGIONS OF P ROVENANCE ................................ .................................... 21 6.2 BASIC M ATERIALS ................................ ............................................... 24 6.2.1 Seed source ................................ ................................................. 24 6.2.2 Select stand ................................ ................................................. 25 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................... 26 APPENDIX I: OECD EST FOR SEED AND CHEME. PLANT S 2011 RULES AND REGULATIONS ................................ ....................................................... 28 APPENDIX II: REGIONS OF PROVENANCE .............................................. 29 REGION OF PROVENANCE 1 ................................ ........................................ 31 REGION OF PROVENANCE 2 ................................ ........................................ 35 REGION OF PROVENANCE 3 ................................ ........................................ 39 REGION OF PROVENANCE 4 ................................ ........................................ 43 REGION OF PROVENANCE 5 ................................ ........................................ 47 REGION OF PROVENANCE 6 ................................ ........................................ 52 REGION OF PROVENANCE 7 ................................ ........................................ 56 REGION OF PROVENANCE 8 ................................ ........................................ 60 REGION OF PROVENANCE 9 ................................ ........................................ 64 REGION OF PROVENANCE 10 ................................ ...................................... 68 REGION OF PROVENANCE 11 ................................ ...................................... 72 REGION OF PROVENANCE 12 ................................ ...................................... 76 REGION OF PROVENANCE 13 ................................ ...................................... 80 APPENDIX III: BASIC MATERIALS ................................ ........................... 84 APPENDIX IV: LABEL XAMPLES E ................................ .......................... 139 APPENDIX V: HANDLING AND MANAGEMENT SIC OF BA MATERIALS IN THE PRODUCTION OF FOREST RODUCTIVE REP MATERIALS ................. 141 INTRODUCTION ................................ .................................................. 142 SEED SOURCES ................................ .................................................... 142 STANDS ................................ .............................................................. 143 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................... 146 Establishment of a National Network of Forest Stands for Sustainable Native Seed Production in Lebanon. 1 Executive Summary Due to the loss of forest coverage and biodiversity in Lebanon along the past decades, public and private reforestation initiatives have appeared at the national level. The Lebanon Reforestation Initiative (LRI) is a project funded by the United States Agency for International development (USAID) and implemented ted by the Uni States Forest Service (USFS) that aims to plant several hundred thousand native trees throughout Lebanon during the life of the project and will establish a foundation to continue tree planting and provide technical reforestation assistance over the long term. To ensure an efficient reforestation, the quality and the origin of the plant used should be selected and controlled. All international mechanisms to identify the seed origin are based on trading regulations. This project aims at implementing one of the most important international schemes for seed identification and trading, the OECD system, adapting its regulations to the Lebanese context. The main objective of 'the OECD Forest Seed and Plant Scheme' is to encourage the production and use ds of see and other reproductive materials, processed and marketed in a manner that ensures their trueness. The fies scheme identi all forest reproductive materials (FRM) according to their origin, their s basic material (seed sources and selected stands) and region of provenance and states that these materials d must be use following the ecological similarity between the place of origin and implementation. Once all this information has been nal gathered, a natio network of seed collecting stands will be implemented t a the national level as same as the ogating labelling and homol system and the handling and management of these areas. 6 Establishment of a National Network of Forest Stands for Sustainable Native Seed Production in Lebanon. 2 Antecedents Lebanon is a country of great biogeographical and climatic variety, its biodiversity is extremely rich and presents a wide range of woodlands such as coastal pine forests or high mountain junipers (table 1), where different of levels vegetation have been identified (table 1). Since ancient times, Lebanese forests have been the suppliers of high quality timber to the Mediterranean people (Miksell, 1969). The oodcutting intensive w over several millennia, followed by the expansion of agro-­‐pastoral activities and subsequent urbanisation resulted in only relic forest patches and scrub vegetation remaining. The forest cover in Lebanon represents around 13% of its total surface. It is broadly divided into three main classes: Mixed Forests (15,610 ha), Broadleaves (78,887 ha) and ,879 Coniferous (44 ha)(MoA, 2005, figure 1). Cedar forests have received national, regional, and international attention due to their historic, symbolic, and biological value (Sattout 005) et al., 2 even if they only constitute 1.58 % of the total forest cover. Table f 1 shows a summary o the vegetation distribution in Lebanon indicating the different vegetation levels. Table 1 . Main vegetation distribution in Lebanon. Floristic ensemble Vegetation level Mother-­‐rock Limestone Marl and marly limestone Sand stone Ceratonia siliqua&Pistacia Termomediterranean Thermomediterranea Thermomediterranean lentiscus series series of Pinus n series Pinus of pinea (0-­‐500 m) Thermophilic series Quercus of brutia&Cupressus calliprinus sempervirens Mediterranean series of Mediterranean series of Mediterranean series Eumediterranean Quercus calliprinos Pinus brutia&Cupressus of Pinus pinea (500 m-­‐1000 m) Mediterranean series of Quercus sempervirens infectoria Supramediterranean series of supramediterranean Quercus calliprinus series of Pinus pinea Normal series of Quercus Series of Quercus Mediterranean Supra mediterranean calliprinus infectoria sandstone (1000 -­‐ m 1500 m) Series of Ostria carpinifolia variety &Fraxinus ornus Series of Quercus Series of Quercus cerris cerris variety Series of Cedrus libani&Abies cilicica Mountainous mediterranean Mountaneus series of Quercus mediterranean cedrorum&Quercus branti ssp. (1500 m -­‐ 2000 m) Look Montainous series of juniperus excelsa Oromediterranean Oromediterranean series of (> 2000 m) Juniperus excelsa Formation of Formation of Hammada eigii Hammada Mediterranean Presteppic series of Quercus (1000-­‐1400 m) calliprinos Mixed presteppic series of Supra mediterranean Mediterranean Quercus calliprinos&Quercus (1400 -­‐ m 1800 m) presteppic infectoria Mountaneus Mountainous presteppic series mediterranean of juniperus excelsa (1800 m -­‐2400 m) Oromediterranean Prestepic ormediterranean (> 2400 m) series of Juniperus excelsa 7 Establishment of a National Network of Forest Stands for Sustainable Native Seed Production in Lebanon. Figure 1 . Vegetation distribution Lebanon in based on vegetation levels (Abi Saleh and Safi, 1988) 8 Establishment of a National Network of Forest Stands for Sustainable