FORRU-CMU contributed to a project organized by Thailand's Supreme Command and the IUCN to restore forest on 1,440 ha of degraded land on Doi Mae Salong (DMSL), Chiang Rai Province. The project was adopted by IUCN’s 'Livelihoods and Landscapes' Initiative, with tree-planting sponsored by Plant a Tree Today (PATT) Foundation. The restoration sites were exhausted former agricultural areas, on steep slopes, at risk of soil erosion and landslides.
The objectives were
- to transform degraded areas into forest to honour the Royal Family and
- to prevent soil erosion.
FORRU-CMU provided technical and scientific assistance to the project (2007-10) Sixty village leaders, local authority officers, school teachers and forestry officers attended 3 workshops, run by FORRU-CMU staff in Chiang Mai, on the general concepts and skills needed for forest restoration.
Subsequently, IUCN organized construction of tree nurseries at 8 village schools in the project area. FORRU-CMU provided training in tree nursery techniques on-site at the 8 school tree nurseries during 2009. The FORRU-CMU team ran a series of educational and training events at the schools, covering seed germination, potting trees, care of trees in the nursery, as well as tree planting and aftercare.
Seed collection was identified as requiring special attention. To address this, FORRU-CMU organized a “forest children” (“look mai pah”) club program. Children got involved in labelling target seed trees —"treasure trees"—, collecting seeds from them and also helping to germinate them. Participating children became members of the club, and accumulated points on a membership card, in exchange for rewards.
In addition, an experimental plot was established to test the suitability of the framework species method of forest restoration (FORRU, 2006) near Ban Lo Yo, in collaboration with the village committee. FORRU-CMU carried out monitoring of this plot over the year and a technical report, presenting initial results on performance of the planted trees, was submitted to IUCN in December 2009.
11: The use of Asian Ficus species for restoring tropical forest ecosystems.
ABSTRACT: Fig (Ficus spp.) trees have been promoted as framework species for tropical forest restoration throughout Asia, because they are considered to be keystone species. This article presents...
12: Grow a Forest with Lin and Sai - an illustrated story for children
This book is available in a multitude of languages and is open-access. See the download panel on the right, to get a copy in your language. If you cannot find your language there ... you are...
13: การฟื้นฟูป่าเสื่อมโทรมในพื้นที่แห้งแล้ง : แนวคิดและแนวทางปฎิบัติเพื่อการฟื้นฟูป่าในภาคตะวันตก
รายงานการรวบรวมองค์ความรู้จากโครงการ "การวิจัยเพื่อการฟื้นฟูป่า" ในชุมชนหมู่บ้านแก่งปลากด ที่มีพื้นที่ติดกับเขตรักษาพันธุ์สัตว์ป่าสลักพระ มีการดำงานร่วมกันระหว่าง เครือข่ายอนุรักษ์ช้าง (ECN)...
14: The role of botanic gardens in the science and practice of ecological restoration
ABSTRACT: Many of the skills and resources, associated with botanic gardens and arboreta, including plant taxonomy, horticulture and seed bank management, are fundamental to ecological restoration...
15: Vegetative propagation of rare tree species for forest restoration
When a tree species is rare and fruits infrequently, vegetative propagation may be the only way to build up planting stock for restoration projects. Anantika, one of our Environmental Science...
16: A Technical Strategy for Restoring Krabi’s Lowland Tropical Forest
This report is one of the outputs from the project “Gurney’s Pitta Research and Conservation in Thailand and Myanmar”, implemented by the U.K.’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)...
17: Research for Restoring Tropical Forest Ecosystems: A Practical Guide
Aimed at researchers and their supervisors, this technical manual describes how to establish a forest restoration research unit (FORRU) and implement a research program to determine how best to...
18: Producing framework tree species for restoring forest ecosystems in northern Thailand
ABSTRACT: Since 1994, the Forest Restoration Research Unit of Chiang Mai University’s Biology Department (FORRU-CMU) has been developing methods to restore forest ecosystems to deforested sites...
19: Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculation and fertilizer on production of Castanopsis acuminatissima saplings for forest restoration in northern Thailand
ABSTRACT: Castanopsis acuminatissima is a native tree species, used to restore evergreen forest ecosystems in northern Thailand. To accelerate tree seedling growth, experiments were performed to...
20: Arbuscular mycorrhizal status of indigenous tree species used to restore seasonally dry tropical forest in northern Thailand
ABSTRACT - Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) status of native plants in the tropical forest of northern Thailand was surveyed. Twenty-four framework tree species, used to forest restoration were...