Over the past three decades SEARRP science has explored and elucidated many of the key questions relating to the ecology, conservation and restoration of Malaysia’s forests, often within the overarching context of land-use and climate change. The findings of our research programme have enabled a step-change in our understanding of tropical rainforests, the impacts of logging, fragmentation and conversion to agriculture across a range of parameters and, as importantly, how these impacts can be mitigated and reversed.