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Deforestation in Thailand

Deforestation is one of the leading causes of the imbalance in the biodiversity in many developing
countries especially Thailand (Pakkad, et al. , 2001). As a response to the problems and threats
brought about by deforestation in the region, the Forrest Restoration Research Unit (FORRU) of
Northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai University was conceived (Blakesley & Elliot, 2003).

The FORRU is an environmental agency that does not only seek to study in theory the primary
causes and effects of deforestation but also aims at contributing to the ongoing campaigns in
protecting and restoring the health of the forests by actively participating in concrete environmental
activities and releasing relevant publications which sustain the general awareness of the public
regarding the developments made through the efforts of FORRU.

The brief history of FORRU reveals that the campaign began when a few number of students and
staff of the Department of Biology of Chiang Mai University decided to do an investigation on the
likelihood of restoring degraded forests in northern Thailand back in 1994. Through the use of the
framework species method and by applying it to local conditions, together with the grant from Riche
Monde (Bangkok) Limited and with the technical assistance from Bath University, the group was able
to first establish a research facility.

Later, the organization was given the name Forest Restoration Research Unit or FORRU which
already consisted of an office and park headquarters for research tree nursery by the time the
organization was formalized. The method implemented by FORRU, which is the framework species
method, depends on planting the smallest possible number of indigenous forest tree species so as to
obtain the maximum ecological benefits.

Due to their potential to hasten the recovery of the biodiversity, framework species are chosen as
they also enhance the natural regeneration of the forests which, in the end, produces a self-sustaining
ecosystem within the forests out of a single planting activity. However, in order to fit the local
environmental forest setting of Thailand, the framework species method has been successfully
adjusted, thereby restoring tropical forests that are seasonally dry as well as to rehabilitate deforested
areas in the northern conservation regions of Thailand.

FORRU has its own teams of researchers and scientists who focus on studying the current state of
the forests in Thailand. By carefully studying and analyzing the main causes of the deforestation
problem and its impact on the population of humans, animals and plants, FORRU’s team of
researchers and scientists are able to provide the backbone of concrete efforts designed to counter
these problems and prevent further damage to the forests and to the biodiversity in the long run.
One central approach of FORRU in meeting its goals of spreading the word about the needed efforts
to revitalize the forests is through published journals and books as well as through maintaining its own
websites that branch out to several other online resources where people can get to learn more about
the present forest situation in Thailand. The drive to disseminate the information critical to preserving
the remaining forests in the regions of Thailand provides the ways for FORRU to reach out to the
larger public and accumulate more help, thereby giving more substance and form to FORRU’s
environmental crusade.

FORRU also engages in educating the younger public with regard to its missions and objectives by
establishing schools programs which specifically cater to the local schools in Thailand. In doing so,
FORRU aims to expand the environmental awareness of the local residents especially the younger
generation from kindergarten to high school students who can be of great help in resolving
deforestation now and in the future.

The organization also aims to educate students studying in international schools by infusing parts of
the organization’s researches and studies into the school programs. For instance, Prem Tinsulanonda
Centre for International Education and FORRU have been collaborating since 2005 in teaching
international students the techniques and concepts formulated by FORRU-CMU in their shared
objective of keeping students updated with the latest information released by FORRU as well as the
aim of inculcating in the minds of these students the importance and indispensable value of the
forests.

FORRU-CMU has also been conducting training programs for professionals who share the same
passion in caring for the environment. These professionals usually come from the ranks and files of
non-government offices as well as those of several government institutions. Workshops and actual
field exposure are carried out in order to make sure that these professionals get a first-hand
experience of the motives of FORRU in addressing the pressing environmental concerns.

For instance, trips to the village of Ban Mae Sa Mai are given to participating professionals so that
they can be able to directly contribute to the efforts of FORRU through experimental plots and to
communicate closer to the local residents of the area who are immediately affected by the
deforestation problem. FORRU has also engaged in collaborating with the Eden Project of Britain, a
project that reaches to over a million individuals annually through its events, workshops and exhibits
which emphasize the gifts of nature and remind the people about these things and on the need to
look after nature in return for what it has given us.

The collaborative efforts focus on ensuring an approach to scale-up the restoration of the forests that
is accepted by the society. From landscapes with multiple purposes to experimental plots, the two
organizations were able to derive a project which is the “Trees for Thailand” which is also an
extension of the Eden Project that will run for approximately three successive years. The collaboration
is said to concentrate on the groups of small local communities as these are the groups who are most
likely to push the efforts to reforest the local area successfully than any other.

These local residents of the 12 communities currently under the program are taught about techniques
in plant nursery as well as techniques in forest restoration. On the other hand, the role of the Eden
Project resides in overlooking the financial management of the “Trees for Thailand” as well as in
handling the networking of all the twelve local communities involved in order to have an aggregate
measure of how much the project has been able to achieve. Thus, FORRU is not only an organization
that is exclusive to Thais and Thailand.

On the contrary, the organization is one which seeks to get help from institutions with similar
ideologies regardless of geographical origins. Nevertheless, many of these collaborations by FORRU
with other organizations from different countries are designed in such a way that they meet the needs
of the local problems of deforestation in Thailand which keeps in line with the primary goals of
FORRU. In more recent times, FORRU received more support from the Darwin Initiative as well as
from the East Mailing Research based in the United Kingdom and the Wildlife Landscape.

The support obtained led to the furtherance of the expansion of the extended services of FORRU for
the next three years since 2005, which include but are not limited to the facilitation of the forest
restoration efforts in three regional countries located in Indochina which are Cambodia, China and
Laos. Much of the renewed efforts concentrate on providing assistance to these Indochinese
countries through the transfer of skills and technological capabilities.

Moreover, these efforts seek to help these countries in developing their own versions of the
framework species technique that are applicable to their local environment setting. Another important
aspect of the support received by the organization is that FORRU is now able to help key
stakeholders in these Indochinese nations to form their organizational counterparts patterned after the
existing system of FORRU in Thailand. These organizational counterparts are designed to apply to
the local socio-economic and ecological conditions in these three countries.

And in order to foster the development of these organizations in Laos, China and Cambodia, FORRU
has been more than willing to produce and give concise versions of its current techniques in
reforesting deforested areas which will then be translated to the local language of these three
respective countries. In doing so, it is highly expected that there will be more ease in propagating the
successful measures done by FORRU in Thailand to its neighboring countries in Asia. Those are just
some of the actual implementations for change done by FORRU thus far through the assistance
provided by organizations who share the same environmental cause.

The fact that FORRU has already been able to establish its own internet website only reinforces the
fact that the organization has grown through the years. Similarly, it also reveals how FORRU has
been able to continuously develop its objectives and attain its goals by resorting to every means
possible just to send their message to the rest of the world. Although FORRU mainly operates in the
deforested and currently being reforested regions in Thailand, the organization has been able to
transcend the boundaries of both geography and national identities.

It is with these things that one can truly say that the difference that one group can make in their own
place can extend beyond the perceived limitations.

References Blakesley, David, and Steve Elliott. "Thailand, Restoration of Seasonally Dry Tropical
Forest Using the Framework Species Method". 2003. UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
June 27 2008. "Collaboration for Environmental Education Prem First Report 2005-06". 2006. The
Forest Restoration Research Unit Chiang Mai University. June 27 2008. <http://www. forru.

org/PDF_Files/PREM%20REPORT%20060415. pdf>. "How to Plant a Forest : The Principles and

Practice of Restoring Tropical Forest". 2006. Forrest Restoration Research Unit. June 27 2008.
<http://www. forru. org/FORRUEng_Website/Pages/engpublications. htm>. Pakkad, G. , et al. "Forest
Reforestation Planting in Northern Thailand". 2001. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations. June 27 2008. <http://www. fao. org/docrep/005/AC648E/ac648e0e. htm>. "What We Do".
2005. Eden Project. June 27 2008. <http://www. edenproject. com/what-we-do/index. php>.

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