The Regional Director for Forest Resources revealed today that the experimental fields of Azores Juniper and Picconia Azorica already occupy an area over 10 hectares on the islands of Terceira, São Miguel and Pico, noting that their purpose is to "pas on the knowledge acquired to future plantations supported by private entities."
 
"The variables under testing comprise spacing and pruning in order to stimulation the formation of a shaft, i.e., a trunk for the use of timber," said Anabela Isidoro, who spoke on the sidelines of a visit to Fontinhas Indigenous Forest Species Nursery in the municipality of Praia da Vitória.
 
The Regional Director stated that "the environmentally sustainable use of some of these species, associated with high quality and value of timber, render them vital in the definition of some policies for the regional forestry sector."
 
In this regard, she stressed that "its use reconciles economic aspects with the preservation and conservation of natural resources."
 
Bearing in mind that the use of native forest species may be strategic in a perspective of diversifying the production of local forests, the Azorean Forest Improvement Programme has defined a course of action aimed at the revitalisation of species and their habitats. Under this initiative, the Azores Juniper and Picconia Azorica species were awarded priority status in a first phase.
 
Azores Juniper is considered to be the most emblematic species of the Azorean endemic forest and probably the most plastic in terms of soil and climate conditions. In turn, Picconia Azorica was selected taking into consideration its rustic characteristics and wood quality.
 
The first stage of the work consisted in study of the effect of different pre-germinative treatments in order to significantly improve the germination of seed and homogenise the batch of plants produced.
 
The following phase included the installation of a network of experimental fields for the study of cultural installation techniques and conduction of species in order to maximise their forest use, thus reconciling profitability with the conservation of genetic resources.