We adapt participatory photography as a tool for engaging local stakeholders and for incorporating local knowledge, preferences, and values into natural resources planning and management. Participatory photography workshops were organized in six villages in Lao PDR, as a step toward creating an indicators-based livelihoods monitoring tool, as part of a landscape-scale forest management project. We describe the method as we applied it, briefly summarize the findings from the workshops, and assess the method based on our experience, with reference to Lynam et al.'s (2007) assessment of participatory methods. Participants communicated the importance of agriculture, livestock, and natural resources as mainstays of their livelihoods strategies and identified urgent needs in areas of transportation infrastructure, education, housing, and health care. Their photographs suggested practical indicators for a livelihoods monitoring tool. Participatory photography proved effective, met our purpose well, and compares favorably with other participatory methods.
Everyday farmers in upland Laos negotiate and strategize a sea of constraints to try to feed their families. Through the use of ranking, participant observation, and semi‐structured interviews, this article examines farmer decision‐making environments in Northern Lao PDR where the political ecology of the country greatly undermines development efforts on every level. Government agendas limit farmer access to land while development projects and corruption exploit upland resources. Laos' historically embedded system of patronage and socio‐ethnic hierarchy benefit the rich at the expense of the rural, ethnic minority poor. Work culture, ethnic background, gender, and stakeholder interests influence crop preferences and farming patterns. Farmers consider geography, physical environment, lack of infrastructure, and market access. Though a state‐sanctioned agricultural transition from subsistence to cash crop farming is under way, the state's commitment to this development scheme is in question.
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