Thomas Krings (Freiburg i.Br.)
Agrarwirtschaftliche Entwicklung, Verfügungsrechte
an natürlichen Ressourcen und Umwelt in Laos
Pages 213 - 228
With the introduction of the „new economic mechanisms“
in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic by the year 1986 and in the
view of increasing economic growth rates in the agrarian sector problems
of contested environmental entitlements between different ethnic groups
became more and more evident. From the viewpoint of the Third World Political
ecology conflicts and contestations over the access and the control of
natural resources are becoming a major concern in recent development studies.
These conflicts may take direct forms leading to struggles over „who
gets what“ (BLAIKIE 1995). In this paper the problem of access and
control over non-wood forest products, shifting cultivation areas in the
highlands and rice-cropping fields in the lowlands of Laos are discussed.
The problems of contested environmental entitlements are analysed within
the analytical framework of the livelihood and vulnerability debate. A
basic premise is that especially the minority mountain dwellers (Hmong,
Akha, Khmu) who are still practising shifting cultivation must derive
a disproportionate share of their livelihood from their natural environment
(monsoon forests). The retreat of the tropical forests in Laos by commercial
logging activities and the clearing of extended forests in the context
of the ongoing hydropower development at the minor Mekong tributaries
reduces the possibilities to use non-wood forest products like mushrooms,
tubers, wild vegetables for the livelihood of the mountain dwellers. The
loss of environmental entitlements becomes even more evident after the
resettlement of villages from the highlands to the lowlands. The resettled
minority groups are obliged to practise completely new cropping systems
(lowland rice production and buffalo-raising). Due to the lack of forests
in the lowlands the use of non-wood forest products is not longer possible.
Most of the resettled groups have to adopt new consumption patterns. Another
limitation of the environmental entitlements occurs in areas which are
affected by the contamination of UXO’s (unexploded ordnances) since
the end of the Vietnam war. The dissemination of thousands of UXO’s
over the eastern and northern parts of the country is limiting the possibilites
for agrarian activities and therefore a considerable reason for unequal
access to cultivable land. Environmental degradation and deforestation
is both the result of open access/lack of defined property rights and
contested environmental entitlements for marginalised rural populations.
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