Tropical forests are generally known as the richest and most hyper-diverse ecosystem in the world. They are exceptional both in terms of biodiversity and forest structure. Tropical rainforests play a vital role in timber production, biological conservation, carbon sequestration and global climate regulation. Tropical rainforests are considered as the most productive of all terrestrial ecosystems, and they are important in driving climate and soil conservation properties. Only occupying 6% of Earth’s land surface, tropical forests ecosystem generate habitat for more than 50% all known species and provide economic forest products and ecosystem services globally.

Increasing demands on timber supply have caused large areas of tropical rainforest to be extensively logged in recent decades. Timber harvesting can impact soil nutrient status and increase soil compaction, hence reducing the survival rates of the remaining trees. Deforestation activities such as extensive conversion of forest into other land uses, timber exploitations and illegal logging has been negatively affecting natural ecosystems, biodiversity and climate. These disturbance activities alter ecosystem structure and its functions. For instance, by removing trees in a large scale, it deprives the forest canopy since it blocks the sun’s rays during the day and retains heat at night. Such sudden disruption of habitat could lead to extreme temperature swings that could be detrimental to plants and animals since 80% of Earth’s land biodiversity live in forests and threatens endangered species such as orang utan and Sumatran tiger.
There are initiatives have been carried out to restore back ecosystem and biodiversity, for instance, ecosystem restoration. As defined by Society of Ecological Restoration (SER) Primer, ecosystem restoration is the process of assisting recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed. The objective of ecosystem restoration is to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity together with creating social, economic and environmental benefits, whereby healthy and connected ecosystems should contribute to improve food and water security, peoples’ livelihoods and to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

From ecology perspective, ecosystem restoration could restore habitat for plants and animals, improve biodiversity conservation and ecosystem productivity (erosion control). Disturbance activities such as fires, flooding, logging, forest clearing and mining alter the physical structure or arrangement of abiotic (soil physical, chemical, biological properties, water, minerals) and biotic (i.e. species composition, interaction among species) factors. Restoration activities such as creation of wetlands, invasive species control and native tree planting (monoculture or mixed species) have been carried out in many countries globally and these efforts have been achieved desirable outcomes in order to restore ecosystem. Habitat restoration could promote the return of fauna back to degraded area and add to existing habitats, making them larger and thus supporting other species against the threats of small population sizes.

Soil is very important abiotic factor for tree reestablishment. Soil structure, moisture, mineral content and presence of microorganisms must taken into account for replanting activities. Most plant particularly dipterocarp species associated with mycorrhizae fungi. These beneficial fungi help plant by extending the roots of the plants for better nutrient and minerals uptake to the plants. These symbiotic relationships are often species specific and essential for native plants establishment. Based on this ecological concept, mycorrhizal inoculation has been introduced for ecosystem restoration purposes. This method has been increasingly incorporated into practice (Perring et al. 2015).

Tropical deforestation contributes about 20% of annual global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and reducing it will be necessary to avoid dangerous climate change. 80% of the Earth's above-ground terrestrial carbon and 40% of below-ground terrestrial carbon is in forests. Soil organic matter and trees in the forest store carbon in different ways. Removing trees through deforestation activities could affect the carbon cycle by releasing their stored carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Trees helps regulate climate change by removing carbon dioxide in the air through photosynthesis process, storing carbon in the trees and soil and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. Increased heat and wildfires, drought, insect outbreaks, reduced agricultural yield and human health impacts are the detrimental effects of climate changes. Thus ,ecosystem restoration such as reforestation and restoration of degraded land could be seen as one of vital responses to climate change since replanting trees could help by influencing the global carbon cycle.

Since climate change is serious concern, there are plenty of efforts have been carried out to encounter this particular issue. In the global scale, reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is a framework introduced by parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This framework create financial value for the carbon stored in forests by offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. Developing countries would receive results-based payments for results-based actions. REDD+ goes beyond simply deforestation and forest degradation and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks through ecosystem restoration.