FORRU's Grantees in 2021

FORRU grantees in 2021.Forest degradation and biodiversity loss are issues of concern in many tropical countries. Accelerating forest regeneration through assisted restoration is an effective way to bring back forest cover while developing biodiversity and mitigating global climate change. In Northern Thailand, many formerly intact forest systems have been converted into farmlands, causing environmental degradation which negatively impacts wildlife habitat. Various organizations are working to restore these degraded areas, but the effectiveness of the different restoration programs should to be monitored, to understand the varying impacts.

FORRU-CMU small project grant recipients in 2021-22 documented the diversity of seed rain and naturally produced seedlings while monitoring the presence of small mammals – key elements to consider which contribute to successful forest restoration. This study was carried out at 2 reforestation plots the ‘Mon Jam’ and ‘Mon Long’ sites, and compared to ‘Mon Jam’ natural forest from February 2021 to January 2022. The objectives included (i) To compare diversity and growth rates of seedlings in the assisted restoration plots vs. these factors in the natural forest. (ii) To investigate the diversity of small mammals and their frequency of detection in restored forests vs. natural forest. (iii) To compare the relationship between seed dispersal, seed species and seed predators in assisted restoration forests vs. natural forests. The students' results can be downloaded from the "related publications" link on this page. 

This project had  four BSc level researchers working on their special projects: 

1. Chrismas Kerdsak
2. Atcharawan Saeaiew
3. Titaree Yamsri
4. Palita Kunchorn

Students and P'Aom were preparing seed traps

Collecting seeds from the traps

Let's check a camera trap