Forest reproductive material (FRM) is crucial for many activities in forestry, nature and environmental protection. Climate change has created an increasing need for new forest management adaptation strategies, including selecting suitable species, mixtures of different species and adapted silvicultural activities. Thus, the demand for adapted FRM of different species and provenances, with the desired morphological and physiological properties is increasing. The choice of optimal tree species and provenance, the structure of future stands and cultivation techniques (a form of planting material) are important for establishing more resilient and plastic forests. The first step to achieving these goals is to know the properties of the FRM, especially its capacity to adapt to the site conditions. A laboratory for adapted FRM, seed collection activities, and the development of methods and testing of the quality of FRM are necessary both for the development of the forestry science, as well as for better implementation of Expert supervision of nursery production of forest planting material and raising the quality and meeting the needs for adapted FRM in the Republic of Croatia. The laboratory for adapted FRM of the Croatian Forest Research Institute (CFRI) was launched within the framework of NextGenerationEU. The laboratory is part of the project: “Establishment and Development of the LABoratory for ADAPTed Forest Reproduction Material (LABADAPT)” financed by the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth.

The main goal of the program: Establishment and development of the Laboratory for adapted forest reproductive material

Additional goals:

• Development of laboratory methods for testing the quality of forest planting material
• Test the quality of forest planting material produced in nurseries in the Republic of Croatia and determine needs and recommendations for improving cultivation methods and quality on the national level.
• Test new methods of cultivation of adapted forest planting material
• Digitize the operations of the CFRI seed bank
• Develop new methods of forest seed storage
• Test the quality of stored seeds in the Forest Seed Testing Laboratory of the CFRI

Keywords: Adapted Forest Reproductive Material, Planting material quality, Nursery production, Seed bank, Seed storage