Doi Tung and community forests turned into global biodiversity data hubs to tackle the climate crisis
The Mae Fah Luang Foundation is expanding work from Doi Tung to community forests nationwide, building biodiversity databases and using tools such as bioacoustics, machine learning and eDNA to strengthen climate and conservation action. As the world faces escalating climate change alongside accelerating biodiversity loss, many ecosystems risk reaching a point where they cannot recover fast enough. The crisis is sending a clear signal: protecting forests alone is not enough. Biodiversity is increasingly recognised as the foundation of water and food security, public health and long-term economic resilience. The Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage is among the organisations working on biodiversity from sustained, on-the-ground experience. Through the Doi Tung Development Project in Chiang Rai, the foundation has worked with local communities for nearly four decades, guided by the late Princess Mother’s approach of “planting forests, planting people”, restoring more than 90% of forest cover. Forest recovery, the foundation […]
