Conservation and management of sweet chestnut genetic resources

Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) is a noble, multi-purpose hardwood species. In addition to edible fruits and high-quality wood, chestnut forests have been used as a source of various resources since the antiquity. Intensive management of forests and stands, however, together with the emergence of chestnut blight, has led to their decline and dieback. As a result, in numerous European countries multidisciplinary projects were initialized, with goals of conserving the genetic resources of the species, as well as reestablishing its significance in rural and forest ecosystems. In this paper, an overview of the most important long-term gene conservation strategies is presented, with suggestions for guidelines for application of in situ and ex situ conservation methods in Croatia.