Network Member Organization Profile: FORRU - Thailand

As a leader within an international forest restoration network, FORRU oversees four major project sites in Thailand: working with the National Forest and Park service in Northern Thailand, working with bird habitat conservation in Southern Thailand, restoring natural corridors for elephant migration in Kanchnaburi province along the Western border, and forest restoration work in the far North province of Chiang Rai and the future collaboration with Nan province.

FORRU facilitates tropical forest restoration under a framework of conservation and community development. Their research department works with communities to include important Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) within the restoration process so that the community can reap financial, nutritional, and cultural benefits from the forest. Staff also work with schools, government offices, and local businesses in order to pursue opportunities for local communities to gain benefits from carbon sequestration, ecosystem services, and the development of native tree nurseries.

As part of a growing partnership between ECHO Asia and FORRU, the ECHO Asia staff had the chance to visit three of FORRU’s forest restoration plots:

The first plot was one that the FORRU staff had recently prepared for planting. Researchers had already utilized a rapid appraisal methodology to assess degraded forest area and had selected twenty-five “framework” native tree species. These species arenative trees of importance to local ecosystems, which were to be planted at 1.8 meter spacing. This framework method is key to facilitating the forest’s regrowth.

The second plot has been growing for two years and FORRU staff weed around the trees three times a year in order to help the native trees outcompete invasive species.

The third plot is now thirteen years old and the forest had grown to become a healthy and “usable” forest. By using framework species method, FORRU staff had provided a structure for the forest to regenerate. Over the course of those thirteen years, native animals have slowly returned to the forest, carrying with them seeds of other native tree species. The plot had begun with the planting of the thirty framework species, but upon collecting data at year five, the forest had naturally regenerated to include ninety different species.

Seeing the critical linkages between sustainable agriculture systems and forest conservation, ECHO Asia is excited share the important work of FORRU with our network. We are grateful for this growing partnership. Thanks to the kind support of Kew Gardens and the Millennium Seed Bank of England, ECHO Asia is happy to announce that in the coming year we will begin to offer a select number of FORRU framework species seeds, those that might be beneficial to the ECHO Asia network, through our Seed Bank. Be on the lookout at the ECHO Asia Seed Bank page for upcoming announcements!

To read more about FORRU’s work, visit their website