Ria Raut is a doctoral student in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. She received the 2026 Fellowship for research into the recovery of selectively logged tropical forests.
The research
Working in the Danum Valley Conservation Area and Ulu-Segama Forest Reserve, Raut compares sapling recruitment in primary and regenerating forest. Her project asks whether differences between logged and unlogged stands are driven principally by biological factors—such as adult tree species and mycorrhizal communities—or by physical conditions including soil biochemistry and canopy light.
The answer matters because restoration is not simply a matter of waiting for trees to return. A forest’s future composition depends on which seedlings survive, what conditions favor them, and how logging has changed those conditions. Better evidence about recruitment can improve restoration strategies in one of the world’s most biodiverse and heavily pressured ecosystems.
Why the Fellowship supported it
The project combines field observation with a clear conservation application. It addresses carbon storage, biodiversity, and ecological resilience while producing knowledge that land managers can use. That combination of analytical rigor and practical consequence is exactly what the Fellowship exists to support.