PERANAN BIOTEKNOLOGI DALAM PEMBANGUNAN KEHUTANAN DI INDONESIA (The Role of Biotechnology in Foresty Development in Indonesia)

Biotechnology has progressed quite rapidly and produced findings with significant impacts on the advancement offorestry development. The progress in biotechnology among others includes: techniques in in vitro vegetative propagation, cryopreservation, flower stimulation, molecular marker, gene isolation, genetic 'engineering, and association between marker and plant characteristics. With regard to the natural constraints possessed by many forest trees such as a long-generation interval, large size of trees, and lack of ability to intercross with related species, the use of biotechnology in tree improvement is very promising. Modem vegetative propagation systems have increased the capability to propagate improved plants and as a consequence the improvement in plant productivity is speed up. The use of DNA marker has open opportunities to do early selection. Genetic engineering has also created opportunities to grow plants having new characteristics. One of biotechnology branches which has been implemented in Indonesia is plant propagation using tissue culture. A number of species have been produced commercially, such as Acacia mangium, Eucalyptus urograndis, and Tectona grandis. The application of DNA technology has also been done particularly for genetic identification in developing clonal forestry programs, and studies in genetic variation of population for breeding and conservation purposes, while genetic engineering is stiIllimited to the development oftransformation methodology and plant regeneration.