Mae Fah Luang Foundation

The Mae Fah Luang Foundation (MFLF) is a Thai non‐profit organization that manages numerous projects within Thailand as well as other countries in Asia. The Foundation’s mission focuses on three main areas: “improving social and economic development, preserving the environment, and supporting local art and culture.”

In 1972, the late Her Royal Highness Princess Srinagarindra (Princess Mother), mother of the present King of Thailand, founded the Thai Hill Crafts Foundation to offer market access for craft-making villages in the Northern highlands. It was later renamed the Mae Fah Luang Foundation in 1985, after the name given to the Princess Mother by the ethnic minorities, meaning “royal mother from the sky.” The new name indicates the growing scope of social development efforts the Foundation was assuming based on the ideas and philosophy of the Princess Mother.

In 1988, the MFLF initiated its flagship project in Doi Tung, Chiang Rai, with the goal of providing people with sustainable livelihoods. The MFLF developed the Sustainable Alternative Livelihood Development (SALD) model, which emphasizes thorough understanding of the needs of the local people and their socio-geographical realities, as well as integration and involvement of all levels. This model has been replicated in its projects in Thailand, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Indonesia.

The Mae Fah Luang Foundation (MFLF) was founded in 1972 by the late Princess Srinagarindra as the Thai Hill Crafts Foundation under the Royal Patronage of Her Royal Highness. The Thai Hill Crafts Foundation addressed the problem of poverty and poor living conditions faced by the ethnic minority groups in Northern Thailand by promoting and marketing their handicrafts to supplement their income, as well as teaching them skills and disciplines such as Thai language, basic math, and health education at Rai Mae Fah Luang. In 1985, the Thai Hill Crafts Foundation was renamed the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under the Royal Patronage of Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother, as it initiated more extensive rural development projects.

The MFLF undertook its first comprehensive development project, the Doi Tung Development Project, in 1988 at Doi Tung, Chiang Rai, to tackle opium cultivation at its root cause—poverty and lack of opportunity. The project aimed to create self-sufficient communities that would become independent of external support and well equipped to adapt to the changing environment. Today, this work has become the recognized SALD model.