Territorialising Sustainable Development: The Politics of Land-use Planning in Laos

Agrosilvopastoral Systems in Northern Thailand and Northern Laos: Minority Peoples’ Knowledge versus Government Policy

“…In Laos, due consideration should be given to the integration of agrosilvopastoral systems into ongoing land and forest allocation processes in the northern provinces, which have been scrutinized by various scholars for their lack of genuine community participation [25,40]. This could be done, for instance, in the form of "community-based forest-livestock concessions" in combination with the allocation of secure communal land rights.…”

On the System. Boundary Choices, Implications, and Solutions in Telecoupling Land Use Change Research

“…The geopolitical struggles during the First and Second Indochina Wars (1945-1954 and 1959-1975) greatly influenced access to and the use of land, and since the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in 1975, the country's northern borderlands have been strongly influenced by state territorialisation efforts aimed at controlling land use and land users through various land and population management schemes [84][85][86]. Economic and political reforms initiated by the Government of Laos' (GoL) in the 1980s and the large push for "turning land into capital" since the early 2000s [87][88][89], combined with the growing economic strength of neighbouring countries, have resulted in a formal integration of the economy in the wider region, bringing with it a substantial increase in transnational investments in land and agricultural production [90][91][92][93].…”

“…The village area consists of a narrow strip of lowland fields around the Nam Ma River and the hilly uplands on both sides of the valley. In 2001, the village was subject to the GoL's Land Use Planning and Land Allocation (LUPLA) programme [84,[102][103][104], where village boundaries were defined and land (re)distributed between neighbouring communities, and the number of officially permitted upland fields per household was limited to three for upland farmers and two for households with paddy land. The succession of settlements and the outcomes of the LUPLA process influence the distribution of land among households in the village today.…”

Land-use change in a telecoupled world: the relevance and applicability of the telecoupling framework in the case of banana plantation expansion in Laos

“…Using arguments of poverty alleviation and socioeconomic development, the Government of Laos has carried out a host of land reforms, landuse zoning schemes, and forced resettlements of ethnic minorities from the uplands to the lowlands (Vandergeest 2003, Evrard and Goudineau 2004, Lestrelin et al 2012. A pivotal objective has been to stabilize or eradicate shifting cultivation practices that are deemed undesirable and environmentally destructive (despite substantial contradictory evidence; Lestrelin 2010), and instead promote stable and economically "rational" lowland agriculture Phanvilay 2008, Lestrelin et al 2012).…”

“…Historically, the province prospered from its strategic location on the trade routes from Yunnan, China to Siam (now Thailand) bringing flows of goods and people (Thongmanivong et al 2009, Sturgeon 2013a; however, these interactions were largely disrupted during the two Indochina Wars (1945-1954 and 1959-1975) and in the politically tense post-war period, turning the region into a remote and "underdeveloped" frontier (Lagerqvist 2013). Following a number of political and economic reforms carried out by the Government of Laos since the late 1980s, including an ongoing transformation from planned to socialist market economy, a relaxation of political tensions with its neighboring countries, and a reopening of the regional borders in the mid-1990s (Lund 2011, Lestrelin et al 2012, Luang Namtha Province has gradually been opened up to foreign investors and incorporated into the national and regional economy. Coinciding with the growing economic strength and demand for natural resources in Laos' big neighboring countries (China, Thailand, and Vietnam) and with a general improvement in road infrastructure (Lyttleton et al 2004, Sturgeon 2013b, these developments have resulted in substantial increases in transnational investments in land and agricultural production (Schönweger et al 2012, Messerli et al 2015.…”