Land Use Classification Policy in Laos : Strategy for the Establishment of an Effective Legal System

Abstract

The disparity between the legal right to use land and forest, and the actual use of land and forest by the local inhabitants in Laos, was confirmed. Then the strategy to make the legal system effective was proposed. According to the land law, the right of utilization of land is granted to organizations and individuals. Furthermore, the land for which the right will be allocated is only the degraded forestland, among the forestland classified into five types by the forestry law. In addition, the customary use of forest products by local inhabitants is not allowed in the protection forest and conservation forest, and has weak competence against other rights. On the other hand, our survey disclosed that local inhabitants are harvesting forest products from all types of land, and they regard the agricultural land, fallow land and grassland (partially) as swidden land as a unity. Therefore, the enforcement of the land use classification based on the present vegetation results in dispossessing people of their livelihood. Furthermore, the land use classification policy was planned on the presupposition that swidden agriculture will be abandoned, which makes its effectiveness doubtful. From the above, as a strategy to establish sustainable forest management, we propose 1) to frame the "transition period" and to adopt measures to sustain swidden agriculture on a small scale, and 2) to introduce an adjective law which will sustain the present harvesting of forest products as much as possible.