IKEA Restores 18,500 Hectares of Borneo Rainforest

A Swedish furniture company just proved that patient, dedicated reforestation can bring entire ecosystems back to life.

IKEA announced last week that its 25-year rainforest restoration project in Sabah, Malaysia has successfully revived 18,500 hectares of degraded forest. That's larger than the entire city of Paris, now thriving with wildlife that had disappeared decades ago.

The journey started in 1998 when IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad proposed an ambitious idea: restore a tropical forest in Borneo damaged by fires and logging. Working with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Sabah Foundation, IKEA began planting native seedlings, funded partly by customer donations in their stores.

Over the past quarter century, the team planted five million seedlings representing 90 indigenous tree species. They focused on recreating the natural diversity that makes rainforests resilient, not just planting trees for carbon credits.

The results speak for themselves. Pygmy elephants have returned to roam the forest floor. Orangutans swing through canopies that didn't exist a generation ago. Clouded leopards and hornbills now call the restored area home again.

Malaysia recognized the achievement by granting the area the strictest environmental protections available. Since 2012, it's been part of the Sungai Tiagau Class 1 Forest Reserve, safeguarding it for watershed and biodiversity conservation.

Now IKEA wants to multiply that success globally. The new Living Rainforest Restoration Lab will shift from hands-on planting to collaborative research and knowledge sharing. The company committed to funding the program for ten years, currently supporting 24 research projects with Malaysian universities.

The Ripple Effect

This isn't just about one restored forest in Borneo. The lab aims to translate practical restoration insights into methods that work across tropical forests worldwide.

Scientists and conservation practitioners can now access decades of real-world data about what works when bringing degraded rainforests back to life. Which native species grow best together? How long before wildlife returns? What techniques can scale to other regions?

The initiative represents one of Malaysia's largest and longest-running forest rehabilitation projects. That track record gives the research credibility that theoretical models can't match.

"The project has not only restored forests and biodiversity but also generated valuable knowledge," said IKEA's chief sustainability officer Lena Julle. "We now want to share these insights more broadly, so they can help guide the restoration of other degraded rainforests around the world."

The lab brings together academic researchers and on-the-ground restoration experts, creating a bridge between scientific study and practical application. As one of the Swedish University's largest ongoing research initiatives, it has the resources to make a meaningful difference.

Twenty-five years of patient work just opened a pathway for forests around the world to come back to life.