The management of land concessions and leases in the agriculture, tree plantation, hydropower and mining subsectors (referred to as land deals henceforth) is a crosscutting topic and involves a wide range of agencies of the Government of the Lao PDR (GoL) at various administrative levels, from the granting stage to the supervision and monitoring of progress and compliance.
Most tea in Laos is produced by smallholder farmers, who benefit from highly suitable growing conditions and strong demand for sought-after varieties from the vast Chinese market. However, the sector faces many challenges to achieve its full potential. A key barrier in the northern provinces has been the tendency towards monopsony trade concessions, in which the production of a whole district can be under exclusive control of one buyer.
Article published in the Journal: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
This is the PDF version of an online data story published by Land Portal on 12 May 2022.
Maize is a key global cash crop, produced in every continent except Antarctica. As a flex crop, it has multiple uses including for direct human consumption, as an ingredient for animal feed, as a key component in processed foods, or in ethanol production. According to figures from FAOSTAT, global production increased from 0.2 to 1.2 billion tons between 1961 and 2020.
Increasing global demand for natural rubber began in the mid-2000s and led to large-scale expansion of plantations in Laos until rubber latex prices declined greatly beginning in 2011. The expansion of rubber did not, however, occur uniformly across the country. While the north and central Laos experienced mostly local and smallholder plantations, rubber expansion in the south was dominated by transnational companies from Vietnam, China and Thailand through large-scale land concessions, often causing conflicts with local communities.
Over the last decade, there have been considerable concerns raised regarding the social and environmental impacts of large-scale land concessions for plantation development in various parts of the world, especially in the tropics, including in Laos and Cambodia. However, there is still much to learn about the various connections and interactions associated with reactions to what are often referred to as “land grabs”, and the ways they are associated or not associated with broader social movements and networks opposed to land grabbing.
Over the last decade considerable research has been conducted on the development and the impacts of large-scale economic land concessions for plantations in Laos and Cambodia. These studies have variously illustrated that concessions frequently result in serious negative impacts on local people and the environment, often leading to dramatic transformations of landscapes and livelihoods. As important as this research has been, these studies have largely focused on the immediate impacts of the “enclosure” process associated with gaining access to land by investors.
The rapid economic growth in Lao PDR over the last two decades has been driven by the natural resource sectors and commercialization in the agriculture sector. Rural landscapes are being transformed over the past decade from land use mosaics of subsistence and smallholder farms to large-scale plantations dominated by a few commercial crops.
The Journal of Lao Studies, Volume 1, Issue 1, pages 1-47. "In this paper I do not argue against farmer livelihood strategies that include either rubber-based or off-farm opportunities. However, the large-scale rubber plantations in Laos are clearly having a massive and rapid impact on landscapes and livelihoods. I want to draw attention specifically to the socio-cultural and economic impacts of the types of rubber development occurring in southern Laos, which I argue are largely benefiting foreign investors and local elites at the expense of most villagers."
A report commissioned by the Working Group on Land Issues. This report’s intended audience is the staff and government partners of the Lao INGO Network, as well as others who are interested in social issues (and within these I include economic, environmental, legal and political ones) associated with land concessions for investment. Readers wanting a summary of the material presented may wish to focus on the introductory sections (1 and 2), the conclusion (section 4).
Grâce à notre moteur de recherche robuste, vous pouvez rechercher n'importe quel document parmi les plus de 64 800 ressources hautement conservées dans la bibliothèque du foncier.
Si vous souhaitez avoir un aperçu de ce qui est possible, n'hésitez pas à consulter le guide de recherche.
