Laos in transition: The runner in front, leading the race or lagging a lap behind?

Abstract

Laos is a landlocked and mountainous country surrounded by China, Vietnam, Thailand Myanmar and Cambodia. From an economic standpoint, Laos is considered a least less developed country (LLDC) by the criteria of the UN. Income generating opportunities, especially in rural areas, are limited because of geographical difficulties and a lack of infrastructure. Therefore, people in rural areas have, for a long time, been heavily dependent on swidden agriculture and the gathering of forest products. Their livelihoods have thus relied on indigenous eco-knowledge for the cyclical use of forest resources. The government of Laos has been encouraging foreign investment with the goal of raising the country above the status of an LLDC by 2020 and has simultaneously implemented the Land and Forest Allocation Program. This program was launched in 1996 and focuses on forest conservation and poverty eradication in rural areas with support being provided by development assistance agencies. However, the implementation of this government forest policy has resulted in the rapid introduction of various cash crops into rural areas, causing dramatic changes to people’s livelihoods and land use. This chapter discusses the political and economic changes that have occurred due to this radical policy shift, by focusing on the impacts on a specific rural village in northern Laos.