The laboratory for Conservation and Genetic Improvement of Forest Trees (CGIFT) has been established under the supervision of Dr. Vivek Vaishnav, Assistant Professor, in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, Manipur University. The laboratory aims; to explore the tree diversity in the Indo-Myanmar (Indo-Burma) hotspot region, understand the reproductive behavior of endemic and data deficit tree species, study their silvicultural and genetic characteristics, assess their ecological and genetic fitness and resilience toward the natural/anthropogenic pressures and changing environmental/climatic conditions, their conservation, ecological restoration, and genetic improvement.

To accomplish the abovementioned aims, we apply the tools and techniques of forest mensuration, tree propagation, ecological inventory, genecology, conservation and landscape genetics, population genetics & genomics, DNA marker techniques, Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), Marker-Trait-Environment Association Mapping (MTEAM), and species distribution modeling (SDM)/ Ecological Niche Modeling (ENM).