STUDY ON FACTORS OF LAND, WAR AND GENDER FOR DECISION-MAKING OF RESETTLEMENT RELATED TO NAM NGIEP 1 HYDROPOWER PROJECT IN LAOS

Abstract

 The Nam Ngiep 1 Hydropower Project (NNP1) has been developed in Lao PDR and it took time, manpower and cost to solve an issue of resettlement of total 520 households and 3,500 project affected peoples (PAPs). They are indigenous ethnic minority “Hmong” and mostly selected the self-resettlement by getting cashing compensation than move to the resettlement village prepared by the project owner, though it has been developed to suit with their lifestyle by considering background such as custom, culture and history. This paper presents the study on factors such as land, war and gender of decision-making for resettlement related to NNP1, which were obtained through negotiations and activities with PAPs, interview with them and literature survey, and provide with measures to implement the resettlement of indigenous ethnic minority on hydropower development in Southeast Asia.