Resin production in natural Aleppo pine stands in northern Evia, Greece

We investigated the variability in resin yield of Aleppo pines in Evia (Greece) with the aim to exploit this natural resource in a sustainable way. Ten experimental plots were established in natural pine stands for monitoring. Our results revealed significant differences among stands, with high variation among individual trees in each plot. Maximum resin production was achieved in the Livadakia site whereas the minimum was obtained in Kokinomilia. All trees were classified according to their resin production into five classes ranging from not economically profitable (I) to highly profitable (V). From a total of 2483 trees, 1043 (42%) were in class I whereas the remaining 58% was classified into economically acceptable classes (II–V). A weak correlation (R2 = 0.315) between resin production and tree size was found suggesting that taller trees produced more resin than smaller trees.