Projects

Young Forest Restorers

YFR first planting event
YFR first planting event
Apr 01
2022
-
Mar 31
2025
Chiang Mai, Thailand
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Is your school ready to get directly involved in forest restoration? 

The Young Forest Restorers (YFR) project can help, by providing teachers and their pupils with science-based skills, knowledge and funding support, to enable them to perform effective forest ecosystem restoration. Here's how:

  1. Hands-on experience sessions on seed collection, germination and growing forest tree in nurseries as well as technical assistance with tree-planting and follow-up, including calculation of carbon offset—provided free of charge.
  2. User-friendly teaching materials, to support the above - including online learning and awarding of certificates to participating students—also free.
  3. Technical and financial support, to establish on-campus tree nurseries to 4 schools per year.
  4. A network, for swapping of tree-seed species among schools, via CMU's central seed bank—for even wider collaboration, establishing a YFR community.
  5. Teachers' meetings, to share ideas, and an annual “Forest Celebration”, where schools can share their experiences and raise awareness of forest issues with the general public and maybe even influence policy makers.

The YFR project is aimed at mid-secondary schools in and around Chiang Mai city (including international schools). So, if your school would like to join this project, please let us know via the contact us tab. Our capacity is limited to assisting 4 schools per year ... on a first come first served basis.

For more info please read the report on successful completion of the 1st year of the project through the "download" panel and our plans for year 2. 

YFR Summary Graphic
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We greatly appreciate sponsorship of this project by the Keidanren Nature Conservation Foundation.

 

Training & Outreach

Every restoration project should provide learning experiences to all stakeholders. Find out how to include education and training in your projects here.

1: Young Forest Restorers—Action Book

Publication date11 Nov 2022
Author(s)FORRU-CMU
PublisherChiang Mai University
Format
Book

This user-friendly booklet guides school children through a series of hands-on forest-restoration activities from seed collection and germination to growing trees in nurseries, tree planting,...

2: Exploring the Environment & Nature of Chiang Mai: a Teachers' Handbook—ENGLISH VERSION 

Publication date20 Mar 2022
Author(s)FOREST RESTORATION RESEARCH UNIT
PublisherChiang Mai University
Format
Book

  The Thai version of the manual received 3rd prize in the writing category of the Green Globe Institute Awards. Phai and Som (our education officers), who were primary writers and designers of...

3: Restoring Tropical Forests: a Practical Guide

Publication date2013
Author(s)Elliott, S.D., D. Blakesley & K. Hardwick
PublisherFirst published in 2013 by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB, UK www.kew.org Distributed on behalf of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in North America by the University of Chicago Press, 1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Format
Book

Available in English, Spanish and French      The authors at a publishers' meeting, Kew 2012Restoring Tropical Forests is a hands-on guide to restoring degraded tropical forest ecosystems. Based...

4: Grow a Forest with Lin and Sai - an illustrated story for children

Publication date2013
Author(s)FORRU-CMU
PublisherFORRU-CMU
Format
Book

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...

5: The role of botanic gardens in the science and practice of ecological restoration

Publication date2011
Author(s)Hardwick K. A., P. Fiedler, L. C Lee, B. Pavlik, R. J Hobbs, J. Aronson, M. Bidartondo, E. Black, D. Coates, M. I Daws, K. Dixon, S. Elliott, et. al.
PublisherWiley, Conservation Biology 25(2):265-275
Format
Journal Paper

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...

6: A Technical Strategy for Restoring Krabi’s Lowland Tropical Forest

Publication date2008
Author(s)The Forest Restoration Research Unit
Editors(s)Elliott, S., C. Kuaraksa, P. Tunjai, T. Polchoo, T. Kongho, J. Thongtao & J. F. Maxwell
PublisherFORRU-CMU
Format
Book

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)...

7: How to Plant a Forest: The Principles and Practice of Restoring Tropical Forests

Publication date2005
Author(s)The Forest Restoration Research Unit
Editors(s)Elliott, S., D. Blakesley, J.F. Maxwell, S,, Doust & S. Suwannaratana
PublisherFORRU-CMU
Format
Book

FORRU-CMU's second practical training manual was published in 2005. It includes generic principles of restoration theory and practice, applicable throughout the tropics, as well as  descriptions...

8: Saving Thailand's Forest: a helping hand from Britain's Darwin Initiative

Publication date2003
Author(s)Kirby Doak
PublisherGuidelines Magazine
Format
Magazine Article

Kirby Doak was the second of several skilled and enthusiastic Australian Youth Ambassadors, who uplifted FORRU-CMU's education and outreach program, from 2001 to 2010. In this article in Chiang...

9: Reaping the rewards of reforestation

Publication date2002
Author(s)Elliott, S. & D. Blakesley
PublisherGuidelines Magazine
Format
Magazine Article

Although rapidly growing human populations make continued tropical destruction and the accompanying loss of biodiversity seem inevitable, Hmong hill-tribe villagers in the north of Doi Suthep-Pui...

10: Implementing the Agenda

Publication date2000
Author(s)Elliott, S., J. Kerby, V. Baimai & A. Kaosa-ard
Editors(s)Elliott, S., J. Kerby, D. Blakesley, K. Hardwick, K. Woods & V. Anusarnsunthorn
PublisherInternational Tropical Timber Organization and the Forest Restoration Research Unit, Chiang Mai University
Format
Conference Paper

The main outcome of FORRU-CMU's first international workshop was the "Chiang Mai Research Agenda for the Restoration of Degraded Forest Lands for Wildlife Conservation in Southeast Asia". This...