The Rockefeller Foundation has awarded the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under the Royal Patronage (MFLF) with a USD 200,000 grant to develop a scalable remote sensing technology that monitors forest encroachment. The technology will initially be deployed to monitor coffee plantations in the Doi Tung Development Project (DTDP) area. The MFLF will manage shade-grown coffee farms, monitor the expansion of economic forests to ensure the mitigation of forest encroachment and improve the integrity of its carbon credit project, which is the largest nature-based carbon credit project in Thailand.
Through this grant, MFLF will develop a field-tested application in the DTDP area, which includes 29 villages and 12,682 residents. In the long run, this technology could protect conservation forests, leading to the preservation of natural habitats, and prevent the valuable biodiversity loss in the DTDP area.
