On 10 February, 60 FABI postgraduate students and researchers attended a one-day ‘introduction to forestry’ presented by a leader in the South African forestry industry, Dr Andrew Morris. Dr Morris started his forestry career in Eswatini before taking up the position of Research Manager at Sappi in 1997. During that time, Dr Morris was closely involved in the activities of the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP) based at FABI, and for a period, also represented Sappi on the Board of the TPCP. He also led a major programme funded by Forestry South Africa to better understand the impact of the pine pitch canker disease in South Africa and in which numerous FABI researchers were involved.

After leaving Sappi, Dr Morris joined the Institute for Commercial Forestry Research (ICFR) where, under his directorship, the Institute underwent a major restructuring. FABI has enjoyed a long and very strong relationship with the ICFR with numerous research collaborations and joint research projects including the recent ‘Management of pests and diseases of forest crops in Ethiopia’, a five-year research project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and involving the University of Sunshine Coast (Brisbane, Australia), the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Ethiopian Forest Development, ICFR and FABI.

The “Introduction to forestry” course provided postgraduates and early career researchers, who do not have an undergraduate degree in forestry, with an overview and appreciation of forest management in industrial wood plantations. While FABI is recognised globally as a centre of research excellent in tree health and breeding, this course gave students and researches an insight into how this research is part of a very dynamic industry sector in South Africa with an annual turnover exceeding R26 billion.

Topics covered in the course included an understanding of the importance of industrial wood plantations globally and in South Africa, the value chain from nursery to market, planting stock production and silviculture as the key step in the chain, harvesting and transport systems, stand growth and the importance of mean annual increment and why different genus, species and hybrids are planted.