To ensure a stable supply of trees -from which paper pulp is derived- Nippon Paper Industries works to obtain the greatest volume of chip per unit area by efficiently increasing the amount of quality trees that mature quickly and are best suited to pulping. The Forestry Research Science Laboratory develops advanced forestry technologies to increase the amount of superior trees selected from the natural environment as well as biotechnologies to generate superior trees.

The Company is working to develop biotechnologies to support overseas forestation projects.

Nippon Paper Industries has developed two tissue culture technologies known as photoautotrophic culture technology and low-temperature storage techniques, with which it has succeeded in mass clone propagation of Eucalyptus globulus. Photoautotrophic culture technology leverages the photosynthetic properties of plant life to cultivate plants using CO₂, light, and inorganic nutrients. With this technology, we have overcome the problems of poor rooting and retarded growth following planting and have achieved the world's first mass production of high-quality cloned plantlets for forestation usage. With our low-temperature storage techniques, we store shoots that are used in rhizogenesis (root development) at low temperature and retrieve only the required sections when necessary, thereby systematically producing cloned plantlets. This is not merely a technology for mass propagation because these techniques also have substantial potential to improve the stability and flexibility of clone plantlets production operations.

Nippon Paper Industries pursues planting and cultivation of trees, which are a recyclable resource, as a means to secure raw materials and protect the environment.

In June 2000, we established facilities for cloned plantlets production in Collie, Western Australia, and commenced proving trials. There, we select and store high-quality Eucalyptus globulus from our plantations, run test production of cloned plantlets, and conduct trial forestation. These operations are implemented within the tree farm projects, which are perfectly suited to the practical application of these new technologies.

At our plantations where trial forestation is already under way, the superior homogeneity and speed of growth compared with noncloned seedlings has been clearly demonstrated, and we have made great strides forward toward the commercialization of clone forestation.

Using its own unique biotechnologies, Nippon Paper Industries develops trees with superior characteristics and strives to decrease humanity's burden on energy supplies and the environment.

Nippon Paper Industries has independently discovered a gene, Ntlim1, that is involved in determining lignin content. By manipulating this gene, we have succeeded in creating low lignin–content trees. Also, using the MAT vector® system to introduce beneficial genes, we are experimenting with the production of eucalyptus trees that are especially suited to pulping as well as rice with special health benefits.

Nippon Paper Industries is the original developer of the MAT vector® system, which enables the introduction into plants of only certain intended genes. Unlike conventional technologies, the MAT vector® system is extremely safe since it leaves no marker genes (antibiotic resistant genes, etc.) in the transgenic plant, and it also enables the repeated introduction of multiple genes.