- hot-spots
- deforestation
- Laos
- Deforestation in Laos
Problems
Laos contains some of the last significant tracts of wilderness, the largest remaining tropical rainforests, and some of Southeast Asia's most pristine natural landscapes. Some say half of its woodlands consist of primary forests, particularly the tropical rainforest. Unlike the vegetation that grows in the climate of Europe and the United States, tropical rainforest comprises three vegetative layers. However, deforestation is a major environmental issue in Laos. According to Global Forest Watch, Laos had 17.9 million hectares of natural forest in 2010, covering 78% of its land area. By 2022, it lost 322,000 hectares of natural forest, equivalent to 168 million tons of CO2 emissions. Deforestation is more severe in northern Laos, where many ethnic minority groups practice slash-and-burn agriculture, a traditional method of clearing land for cultivation that involves burning vegetation and leaving the soil exposed to erosion. The government has tried to restrict this practice and resettle the farmers to lowland areas, which has caused social and cultural problems for the communities.
Slash and burn Agriculture
According to the United Nations and other monitoring agencies, Laos lost about 150,000 to 160,000 hectares of natural forest annually in the first half of the 1980s, at an annual average rate of about 1.2%. This rate represents the highest deforestation rate in Southeast Asia at that time. The main driver of this deforestation was slash-and-burn agriculture, which accounted for about 60% of the total forest loss. The demand for cassava has seen it become Laos's most profitable agricultural product, as demonstrated by the country’s 2021 figures: cassava was the leading export item, with figures totaling USD 85 million. This demand has led to encroachment on protected forests and national parks in Laos as farmers look for land to expand their cassava production, with reports of slash-and-burn agricultural practices becoming routine during the dry season.
Illegal logging
Industrial-scale illegal logging is routine in Laos, a southeast Asian nation that has seen its dense forest cover decline from 29 to 8.2 percent over the past decade, and the practice is gaining momentum under the guise of special infrastructure projects, according to information obtained by the London-based advocacy group Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). In 2013, Laos exported 1.8 million cubic yards of timber to Vietnam and China — more than 10 times the country’s official harvest, EIA found. Trade data also show that in 2014 China received $1 billion in illegal timber from Laos — a 22-fold increase from 2008. The high figures imply that the bulk of this timber is composed of valuable rosewood species, supposedly protected under Lao law. All logging operations are linked to infrastructure projects, especially hydropower dams, roads, mining, and agricultural plantations. Many threats still endanger the forest in Laos, including illegal hunting, logging, and forest conversion for agriculture and economic development. Finding a solution for these complex issues is difficult because each community varies depending on its distance from the forest, socioeconomic status, and culture.
Gallery
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Timelines
2024
May
The Lao government has signed an agreement with a private company to launch a forest carbon credit initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from forest destruction and forest degradation. Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the cooperation between the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the company AIDC Green Forest, the project will involve eight forests with a total area of approximately 1.4 million hectares. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the scheme is an important national strategy and is in line with strategies adopted by other countries to reduce forest destruction, which is one of the causes of climate change. The initiative will help protect and restore forests while also improving the quality of life of local communities, and strengthening the national economy and the overall development of society.
2023
February 01
Cassava was the most exported item, leading to trade worth USD 85 million, followed by gold ore and gold bar at USD 46 million and gold at USD 35 million. This demand has led to encroachment on protected forests and national parks in Laos as farmers look for land to expand their cassava production, with reports of slash-and-burn agricultural practices becoming routine during the dry season.
2022
August 02
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry 24 August 2022 launched a project on “Livelihood Development for Sustainable Forest Governance in Northern Laos.” The Mekong-Republic of Korea Cooperation Fund (MKCF) funded the project through the fund management and coordination of the Mekong Institute (MI). The project aims to support the implementation-related framework and activities of climate change adaptation and mitigation, which involve sustainable livelihood development in the country's highly vulnerable deforestation and forest degradation areas.
2012
December 15
60-year-old Sombath Somphone—a prominent social activist who received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 2005 for his social and environmental work— disappeared. Closed-circuit TV footage showed Sombath being taken to a roadside police station in the capital city of Vientiane after traffic police stopped him. Thursday, Human Rights Watch said the footage and other accounts “indicate that Lao authorities took him into custody, raising concerns for his safety.
2005
January 23
Nearly 70 percent of land in Laos was forested (16 million hectares). However, like much of Southeast Asia, primary forest has become a rarity in Laos; about 9 percent of its total (1.49 million hectares) comprises primary forest. Forest Cover: Total forest area: 16,142,000 hectares, percent of land area: 69.9 percent. Primary forest cover: 1,490,000 hectares; percent of land area: 6.5 percent; percent total forest area: 9.2 percent. Forest Area Breakdown: Total area: 16,142,000 hectares; Primary: 1,490,000 hectares; Modified natural: 14,428,000 hectares; Semi-natural: n/a; Production plantation: 223,000 hectares; Production plantation: 1,000 hectares.
1993
In an effort to protect the country's species richness, the Lao government established 18 National Biodiversity Conservation Areas (NBCAs), which cover about 24,600 square kilometers, or about 10 percent of the country.