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The current working definition of biotechnolology used by the FAO refers to any means of developing or using living organisms to produce or alter or improve a product or organism for a specified purpose (UNEP 1992; Schmidt 1997), which would include prehistoric plant and animal domestication. A more current perspective specifies biotechnology having commercial applications, featuring deliberate manipulation of the genetic components of living organisms or their products (IBPGR 1991; Iowa State University 1994). These definitions, although accurate for the specific purposes for which they were intended, contribute to the prevalent confusion surrounding biotechnology and in particular forest biotechnology. In some cases, biotechnology is associated with genetic modification, and in others it can be used to define a broad spectrum of modern methods applicable to forest science. We propose a compromise between the two; more specific than the former, yet less utilitarian than the latter: “the use of the whole or targeted portions of organisms to provide quantitative information and/or desired products, including the isolation and/or manipulation of specific genetic components of that organism”.
