As seen on the Vientiane Times

Rural people are facing challenges resulting from the granting of land concessions, which have limited the forest areas available to them, while the unregulated use of herbicides is also threatening their health.

Officials recently voiced the concerns regarding the issue that they encountered during the pilot of Sam Sang (Three Builds) over the past two years.

At a recent meeting to discuss the draft of the new Politburo resolution related to Sam Sang, Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines Mr Khammany Inthirath reported that resettlement was a challenge in hydropower development.
He said almost all of the new locations the authorities arranged for resettled residents did not have areas for them to make a living, giving Nam Ou 5 project as an example.

“We are having difficulties with resettlement. We went to provincial authorities and they said they did not know where, while district authorities also said they did not have any ideas,” Mr Khammany said.
The deputy minister said some communities relocated from project areas were in the danger from possible landslides in their new localities.

The country has an area of 236,800 square kilometres and a population of 6,695,000 (2013 estimate), which makes the population density some 28.2 people per square kilometre.

Mr Khammany pointed out that the land concessions granted to investors have backed local villagers into a corner in various ways.
He said people wanted enough land to sustain their animal herds and enough forest that they could harvest bamboo and mushrooms at a point in time when commercial farms could not meet domestic demand.

However the deputy minister said the investment projects had harmed their livelihoods such as commercial tree plantations, which had not only cleared natural forest but caused problems concerning herbicide use to spread.

“People cannot do animal husbandry or harvest the abundance of nature because of the spread of herbicides,” he complained.
The spread of dangerous substances in the country was a focus of public complaints made through the National Assembly hotline calls, including the herbicide used at Chinese operated banana farms in Bokeo province.

According to an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s Agriculture Department, use of herbicide had been permitted by the government decree on the use of pesticides, which was followed by the ministry instructions on the use of herbicides against unwanted flora.

Addressing social and environmental issues has become increasingly important for the related officials in order to build a comprehensive draft of the new Politburo resolution concerning the devolution of power between the authorities at the provincial and district levels.

By Somxay Sengdara

Original article – Land concession, chemical use threatening rural livelihoods