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Volume 47, Issue 4
Displaying 1-6 of 6 articles from this issue
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Special Issue
Agency, Opportunity and Risk: Commercialization and the Human-nature Relationships in Laos
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Yasuyuki Kono, Nathan Badenoch, Shinsuke Tomita, Linkham Douangsavanth ...2010 Volume 47 Issue 4 Pages 365-373
Published: March 31, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (277K) -
Satoshi Yokoyama2010 Volume 47 Issue 4 Pages 374-402
Published: March 31, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe purpose of this study is to clarify the trade flow of agro-forest products and commodities by analyzing commercial activities and private traders in a mountainous region. This study focused on Ngoi district of Luang Phabang province in northern Laos where there is a long history of non-timber forest product (NTFP) trading in the study area.
In the Lān Xāng Kingdom era, political coordinators called Lām collected agro-forest products from mountain people as tax, and private traders purchased NTFPs, mainly benzoin and cardamom. Then, under the communist regime in the period between 1960 and 1986, private traders were replaced by government-managed stores and the role of the Lām disappeared. After the Lao version of Perestroika or Chintanakan Mai in 1986, private agro-forest product trading was re-established in the study area and in addition, general stores and periodic markets appeared along the riverside. The re-establishment of agroforest product trading resulted from the stimulation of commodity flows due to the local general stores and periodic markets, and vice versa.
During the Chintanakan Mai period, the NTFPs being traded in the study area were not traditional foods or medicines but rather new products being exported to foreign countries, especially China. The borders with Thailand, China, and Vietnam in northern Laos were re-opened in the early 1990s, after which Chinese traders came directly to northern Laos to purchase NTFPs. This paper shows how the stimulation of human mobility, commodity distribution, and information flow observed after Chintanakan Mai has strongly affected the livelihood of the mountain people.View full abstractDownload PDF (3261K) -
Andreas Neef, Pornsiri Suebpongsang, Chanhsom Manythong, Wirachinee Ta ...2010 Volume 47 Issue 4 Pages 403-425
Published: March 31, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSMost ethnic minority villages in northern Lao PDR continue to rely on non-timber forest products (NTFPs) for much of their subsistence and cash economy. Paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) is an important NTFP in many parts of northern Laos, providing opportunities for earning cash income, particularly for women. Since the plant has been successfully domesticated by local people, it has also been widely proposed as the basis for a sustainable agroforestry system. The major objectives of this article are to investigate the production, processing and marketing system of paper mulberry and to assess its potential to contribute to building sustainable rural livelihoods in northern Lao PDR. We also elucidate how this perennial plant has been affected by recent government policies, changes in resource management ― from gathering to domestication ― and current land use transitions, drawing on a case study from Pha Oudom district, Bokeo province, northern Laos. Whether a sustainable production and supply-chain management system for paper mulberry can be developed that provides a reliable ― albeit modest ― source of income for many ethnic minority villagers in northern Laos will largely depend on the capacity of local producers to enhance product quality and to become more active and equal actors in the value chain, but most of all on the political will of the Lao government to rethink its controversial agriculture and forest policies that aim at reducing agricultural diversity and restrict access to NTFPs through resettlement of formerly forest-dependent communities.View full abstractDownload PDF (1530K) -
Yuichiro Nishimura, Kohei Okamoto, Somkhit Boulidam2010 Volume 47 Issue 4 Pages 426-450
Published: March 31, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis study aims to describe the spatio-temporal aspects of rural daily lives based on natural resource use. We developed new research methodologies using GPS and GIS to collect person-trip data in regions where it is difficult to use questionnaires. By applying the methodology to research conducted in the Vientiane plain, Laos, we have found that this new methodology makes it possible to obtain detailed information about people’s daily activities, specifically: what activities were carried out, at what time, where, and with whom. The research site was Dongkhuwaai Village, Xaithany District, located about 30 km by road from Vientiane. The villagers live traditionally, depending on rice crops in the rainy season and use various natural resources. We analyzed their daily activities both in the rainy season and in the dry season. As a result, we found that the daily activities of the villagers had nature-related constraints. They spent all their time in the settlements and there were no modern forms of time discipline (synchronized activity by household members).
We also investigated the influence of urbanization on rural lives. In recent years, a growing number of foreign companies have begun investing in Vientiane and the vicinity, hoping to take advantage of low labor costs. Commuting to such factories has started from Dongkhuwaai Village. However, the number of commuters is not increasing because villagers already have other sources of income from selling natural resources such as aquatic products, mushroom, bamboo shoots, insects, firewood and so on.View full abstractDownload PDF (2997K) -
A Case Study from Northern LaosYasuhiro Takai, Thanongsone Sibounheuang2010 Volume 47 Issue 4 Pages 451-477
Published: March 31, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis paper is a case study of the decline of water buffalo husbandry under the pressure of land use change in contemporary northern Laos. Since 2000, with the spread of market-oriented agriculture and the implementation of land use zoning, fallow areas suitable for grazing have been squeezed leading to a conflict between grazers and cultivators. Local government has prohibited the former from allowing their livestock to graze freely in the areas designated for commercial agriculture, encouraging them to establish fixed pasture areas. These grazing lands have experienced a number of problems stemming from the difficulty of implementing co-management, and after several trials many of the grazers sold off their water buffaloes to traders. This is compounded by another incentive that pushes them to sell off their buffaloes: the development of buffalo meat distribution mechanisms. The demand for meat has risen steadily in densely populated areas where many the new migrants from rural areas have started to show a tendency to purchase foods such as buffalo meat. Commercial dealings in water buffaloes seem to have hit their peak around 2005. However, after the peak, the boom has been on the decline due to the number of water buffaloes falling sharply in rural areas leading to difficulty for villagers to continue to graze water buffaloes in both traditional and innovative ways.View full abstractDownload PDF (1081K) -
Yutaka Midorikawa, Kaoru Midorikawa, Bounphenh Sangsomsack, Traykhouan ...2010 Volume 47 Issue 4 Pages 478-498
Published: March 31, 2010
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis paper presents the results of an investigation on water-borne infectious disease conducted among the people of Attapeu province from 2003 to 2008. Regardless of the last cholera epidemic in Attapeu province, Lao PDR in the year 1999, the local peoples' awareness of cholera was remarkably low, as demonstrated by the knowledge survey on diarrheal diseases performed in the province in 2006. In the case study material, derived from continuous field observations on malaria among permanent residents in relocated villages in Sanxay district from 2004 to 2008, the infection rate among febrile cases was as high as 45% in the early resettlement period, while it was proved that the rate fell later to1.9-14%. Judging from the environmental condition of this settlement area, this paper makes clear the persistent threat of malaria. Furthermore, among the villagers, hookworm infection was highly prevalent. However, liver fluke infections were scarce and no ascariasis was found from parasitic stool examination in 2007. Water quality analysis of the water sources resulted in remarkably safe water from tube wells from 2003 to 2008.View full abstractDownload PDF (634K)
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