Our Mission

Our Mission

The Forest Restoration Research Unit (FORRU-CMU) is a small team of ecologists and research students in the Biology Department of Chiang Mai University's Science Faculty, located in northern Thailand. Our mission is to carry out research to develop efficient methods to restore tropical forest ecosystems for biodiversity conservation, environmental protection and carbon storage.

We define forest ecosystem restoration as:

Directing and accelerating ecological succession towards an indigenous target forest ecosystem of the maximum biomass, structural complexity, biodiversity and ecological functioning that can be self-sustained within prevailing climatic and soil limitations.

Our unit also has an education/outreach team, which provides environmental education and technical training, based on our research outputs, to a wide range of stakeholders and organizations involved in forest restoration.

Our philosophy is that tropical forests can be restored, but sound ecological research is essential, to provide science-based skills and knowledge to those most directly affected by deforestation. FORRU-CMU actively engages with local people, to integrate biodiversity conservation into the needs of communities, situated in or nearby tropical forests. We believe that if local people have appropriate and sound technical support and are directly involved in all aspects of forest restoration, from planning, to growing and planting trees, they will develop a sense of “stewardship” of restoration projects and will actively participate in caring for and monitoring restored sites, thus reducing the likelihood of subsequent deforestation.

Tropical forest ecosystems can be restored - with the application of appropriate science. Deforested, over-cultivated and burnt, this plot in the upper Mae Sa Valley, Northern Thailand, was planted with 30 framework tree species in 2000. A thriving upland evergreen forest was restored within 10 years.We work mainly in Thailand and have established satellite units, based on the FORRU-CMU model, in Kanchanaburi and Krabi Provinces. In addition, we are exporting our principles and research protocols to neighboring countries, to assist NGOs and forest authorities in Laos, China, The Philippines, Indonesia and Cambodia to develop research-based forest restoration techniques, suitable for the distinctive ecosystems and socio-political conditions in each of those countries.

We work with any organizations with a genuine interest in ecological restoration, from grass roots community groups and schools, to international conservation organizations (IUCN, FAO, WWF-Thailand, ICRAF etc.), government agencies and the private sector.

FORRU-CMU is a research lab within the Science Faculty of Chiang Mai University. The unit is under the umbrella of the university's Centre of Excellence for Environmental Sciences. The faculty provides a small annual grant, as well as office space and logistical support but apart from that, the unit is funded by research grants, from both government and private sectors, and by donations. For more information about our current sponsors, please click on the partner logos at the foot of the home page.