Local response to a government land-allocation program: The role of NTFPs in
marginal mountainous areas in Lao PDR
TAKEDA Shinya
Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan
Email: takeda@asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp
ABSTRACT
People engaged in small-scale agriculture in marginal mountainous areas of mainland Southeast
Asia are now confronted with difficulties, since their conventional shifting cultivation is restricted
by governments for ‘forest conservation’ purposes. Although government-initiated landallocation programs have been promoted, intensification of agricultural land use is not easily
achieved. The critical issue in mountainous environments is, therefore, how to enhance smallscale means of livelihood for people with limited land areas. Lao PDR is typical of the countries
facing this problem. Among Southeast Asian countries, it has the highest per capita forest area
(2.4 ha/capita) owing to its relatively high ratio of forest cover (54%) and low population density.
Some 80% of the total population lives in rural areas, where non-timber forest products (NTFPs)
generate a major part of their cash income.
In an attempt to examine the present state of NTFPs and local means of livelihood in Lao PDR,
field surveys were conducted in a mountainous area of Vientiane province. In 14 villages
surveyed, more than 35 NTFPs were found to be collected for market purposes. Among these,
medicinal plants, e.g., berberine vine (Coscinium fenestratum) and yahoa (Smilax glabra) are for
export to China. Cardamom grows abundantly in disturbed forests, that is, forest fallows,
indicating that forest disturbance creates desirable conditions for the growth of such useful lightdemanding plants. It is, however, getting difficult to find some NTFPs such as sugar palm in
closed natural forests due to overexploitation of such forests.
The government land-allocation program classifies land according to its use, namely, (1)
individual agricultural land and (2) community or government forest. NTFPs are collected from
community or government forests, which include abandoned swiddens and natural forests. The
government also introduced reforestation projects, but people were not strongly motivated to
participate, due to long periods required until harvest and the uncertainty of markets. Rather,
fallows in this area are commonly managed with Peltophorum dasyrachis, a tree species of
Leguminosae, which can improve soil fertility as well as providing timber.
It is, therefore, suggested that wise utilization of available resources of NTFPs within the fallow
and abandoned agricultural lands helps people to diversify their income sources and, thus, sustain
their livelihood.