The Forest Reproductive Material (Great Britain) Regulations 2002

Regulation 4(1)(d)

SCHEDULE 5 MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR THE APPROVAL OF BASIC MATERIAL INTENDED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF REPRODUCTIVE MATERIAL TO BE CERTIFIED AS “TESTED”

Requirements for all tests

1.—(a) General

• The basic material must satisfy the requirements of Schedules 3 or 4 which are relevant to the type of basic material. Tests set up for the approval of basic material are to be prepared, laid out, conducted and their results interpreted in accordance with internationally recognised procedures, which the provisions of paragraph (e) require shall be approved by the Commissioners in writing. For comparative tests, the reproductive material under test must be compared with one or preferably several standards approved by the Commissioners or the standards set out in paragraph 3(b) below.

(b) Characters to be examined

(i) The Commissioners shall be satisfied that tests relied on by an applicant seeking approval under regulation 7(7) are designed in such a way as to assess specific characters, which must be indicated for each test.

(ii) Weight shall be given in the testing process to adaptation, growth, biotic and abiotic factors of importance. In addition, the Commissioners shall be satisfied that other characters which are important in light of the specified purpose, have been evaluated in relation to the ecological conditions of the region in which the test is carried out.

(c) Documentation

• The age of the material and results at the time of the evaluation must be notified to the Commissioners.

(d) Setting up the tests

(i) Each sample of reproductive material shall be raised, planted and managed in an identical way as far as the types of plant material permit.

(ii) Each experiment must be established in a valid statistical design with a sufficient number of trees in order that the individual characteristics of each component under examination can be evaluated. The statistical design shall be approved by the Commissioners in writing.

(e) Analysis and validity of results

(i) The data from experiments must be analysed using statistical methods, which the Commissioners are satisfied are internationally recognised, and which they shall approve in writing; and results shall be presented to the Commissioners for each character examined.

(ii) The methodology used for the test and the detailed results obtained shall be made freely available by the applicant to the public on request and payment of reasonable copying and postage charges.

(iii) An applicant seeking approval under regulation 7(7) shall inform the Commissioners of the likely region of adaptation within the country in which the test was carried out and information as to any characteristics which might limit the usefulness of the material must also be provided to the Commissioners.

(iv) If during tests it is proved that the reproductive material produced from the basic material the subject of the application under regulation 7(7) does not possess the characteristics of the basic material, or similar resistance of the basic material to plant pests within the meaning of the Plant Health Act 1967(1) and any other harmful organisms which may have an undesirable economic impact, then such reproductive material shall be eliminated from further comparative testing.

Requirements for genetic evaluation of components of basic material

2.—(a) Only the components of the following basic material may be genetically evaluated: seed orchards, parents of family, clones and clonal mixtures.

(b) Documentation

• The following additional documentation is required for approval of the basic material:

  (i)

  evidence or a statement of the identity, origin and pedigree of the evaluated components; and

  (ii)

  evidence or a statement or plan of the crossing design used to produce the reproductive material used in the evaluation tests.

(c) Test procedures

• The following requirements must be met:

  (i)

  the genetic value of each component must be estimated in two or more evaluation test-sites, at least one of which must be in an environment relevant to the proposed specified use of the reproductive material;

  (ii)

  the estimated superiority of the reproductive material to be marketed shall be calculated on the basis of these genetic values and the specific crossing design; and

  (iii)

  evaluation tests and genetic calculations must be approved in writing by the Commissioners.

(d) Interpretation

(i) The estimated superiority of the reproductive material shall be calculated against a reference population for a character or set of characters.

(ii) The applicant seeking approval under regulation 7(7) shall advise the Commissioners whether the estimated genetic value of the reproductive material is inferior to the reference population for any important character.

Requirements for comparative testing of reproductive material

3.—(a) Sampling of the reproductive material

(i) The sample of the reproductive material for comparative testing must be truly representative of the reproductive material derived from the basic material to be approved.

(ii) Sexually produced reproductive material for comparative testing shall be:

• harvested by methods that ensure that the samples obtained are representative;

• harvested in years of good flowering and good fruit or seed production, and

• in any event may be produced by artificial pollination.

(b) Standards

(i) The performance of standards used for comparative purposes in comparative tests should if possible have been known in the region in which the test is to be carried out over a sufficiently long period to enable their use as a standard, namely, they shall represent, in principle, material that has been shown useful for forestry at the time that the test starts, and in ecological conditions for which it is proposed to certify the material. They should come as far as possible from stands selected according to the criteria in Schedule 3 or from basic material approved by the Commissioners or another official body for production of tested material.

(ii) For comparative testing of artificial hybrids, both parent species shall, if it is practically possible, be included among the standards.

(iii) Whenever possible several standards are to be used. When necessary and justified, standards may be replaced by the most suitable of the material under test or the mean of the components of the test.

(iv) The same standards will be used in all tests over as wide a range of site conditions as possible.

(c) Interpretation

(i) A statistically significant superiority as compared with the standards must be demonstrated for at least one important character.

(ii) The applicant under regulation 7(7) shall clearly report in his application for approval if there are any characters of economic or environmental importance which show significantly inferior results to the standards; and the Commissioners must be satisfied before approving the basic material that the effect of these inferior qualities is compensated for by other favourable characters.

Conditional approval

4.  The requirements of this Schedule are subject to the discretion of the Commissioners to grant conditional approval under regulation 7(2).

Early tests

5.  Nursery, greenhouse and laboratory tests may be accepted by the Commissioners for approval or for conditional approval if they are satisfied that there is a close correlation between the measured trait and the characters which would normally be assessed in forest stage tests. Other characters to be tested must meet the requirements set out in paragraph 3.

(1)

1967, c. 8.