Abstract
Increased requirements for food and commodities have generated immense
pressure on land resources. Landforms and forest areas have been converted to
agricultural lands and rehabilitation areas to support the needs of a growing population.
Owing to these changes, an urgent need for afforestation and land restoration has been
generated. Various methodologies have been tried to restore the degraded land and
increase the forest cover. Clonal propagation aiming at rapid multiplication and large-scale production of plants via selected clones has been successfully implemented. This
approach has proved useful in raising commercial plantations. The use of
biotechnological approaches such as molecular markers and advanced breeding
programmes proved useful in raising clones for achieving afforestation and land
rehabilitation on a large scale. The present chapter provides a detailed account of
biotechnological techniques and processes that have played a significant role in
afforestation and land rehabilitation.
Keywords: Genetic markers, Micropropagation, Plantation forests, Restoration, Reclamation