Menu
Chapters From development site to urban conservation area

Introduction

  1. Foreword
  2. Message from the Executive Director
  3. The year that was
  4. Working towards impact

Ensuring forest landscapes provide climate solutions

  1. Eight forests, six countries and a shared framework for learning
  2. New terms for community forestry in Riau, Indonesia
  3. Community forest groups in Nepal invest in recharge ponds
  4. Moving beyond monoculture in Viet Nam’s coffee farms

Securing rights and inclusive governance

  1. Making forest tenure processes work for women
  2. Planning for forests through participation
  3. Strengthening inclusive governance in Chitwan’s buffer zones

Supporting growth of forest landscape-related businesses

  1. Building a mangrove business around mud crabs
  2. From forest management to forest income
  3. Building stronger coffee businesses in Viet Nam’s Central Highlands

Securing finance for sustainable forest landscapes

  1. Restoring watersheds, one tree at a time

Generating evidence for influence

  1. Chiang Mai’s community forests take ownership of biodiversity data
  2. Building a regional research community
  3. From development site to urban conservation area
  4. Mapping oil palm from the ground up
  5. Thai community forests earn Green Globe recognition

Engaging the public on forest landscape issues

  1. A new generation of forest guardians
  2. Community members map their forests in western Thailand
  3. Peering into curtained forests
  1. Board of Trustees
  2. Our project donors, partners and networks
A biodiversity survey activity
Generating evidence for influence

From development site to urban conservation area

A biodiversity survey helped convince a Thai university to conserve a rare urban peat swamp instead of building on it.

A 10-hectare freshwater peat swamp forest on the campus of Suratthani Rajabhat University was once earmarked for commercial development. Today, it is being conserved as a site for education, research and urban biodiversity.

Making the case for conservation

In August 2024, with land-filling already underway on parts of the site, RECOFTC approached the university and proposed a biodiversity survey. We had identified the university’s swamp lands through our “Urban resilience building and nature” project as one of the few remaining freshwater peat swamp forests within Surat Thani municipality.

Bats recorded during the biodiversity survey in Thailand

Although peatlands cover less than 0.15 per cent of Thailand’s land area, they are among the world’s most carbon-dense ecosystems and provide important habitat for wildlife.

Evidence changes the outcome

Between November 2024 and February 2025, RECOFTC, university wetland ecologists and biodiversity experts conducted a joint biological survey. They recorded rare species such as the Amboina box turtle (Cuora amboinensis) and Kra Bak (Anisoptera costata), a towering rainforest tree. They also documented the swamp’s role in carbon storage, flood buffering and habitat for freshwater species.

The findings prompted the university to abandon plans for commercial development and conserve the peat swamp as a living classroom for students and the wider public. A proposal to establish the site as a demonstration area for nature-based solutions has since received approval.

Instead of becoming a commercial complex, the peat swamp will remain part of the city’s living ecosystem while serving as a living classroom for students and the wider public.

Butterfly recorded during the biodiversity survey in Thailand
RECOFTC’s work is made possible with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Government of Sweden.