Long-standing partnerships are crucial to strengthening forest tenure rights for villagers in Lao PDR

During the nine plus years that I worked at GIZ and over the nine plus months since my joining RECOFTC as co-director of RECOFTC Lao PDR, I have witnessed, first-hand, how community forestry, known as village forestry in Lao PDR, has grown and is growing in the country. 

This growth is based on the strengthening of legal foundations – particularly the revision of the laws on land and forestry, both of which came into force in 2019 – and on continued commitment and support from government agencies and development partners. This is leading to change on the ground, impacting villagers’ lives in many ways. However, it is also clear that more needs to be done.

The government of Lao PDR is poised to address challenges and build foundations. The ‘Action Plan for the Recognition of Land Use Rights in Forestland’ is notable in this regard. It was developed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, with support from various state and non-state actors, including the World Bank through its PROGREEN initiative. The scale of the action plan’s ambition is notable, and its defined outputs reflect this scale:

Output 1: Create or improve village land allocation, forest and agricultural land management plans for all 3,167 villages located in the three Forestland Categories by 2030; accurately identify construction land, permanent agriculture land and forest land.

Output 2: Survey and register the land of individuals and families, legal entities, organizations and collectives of at least 680,000 plots, in 3,167 villages located in the three Forestland Categories by 2030.

Output 3: Issue land titles, Land Use certificates and Village Forest Management and Protection contracts according to the land use type for land used by people living in 3,167 villages located in the three Forestland Categories by 2030.

The action plan has the potential to significantly change the lives of those living in the 3,167 villages it covers and further scale up the protection of Lao PDR’s forests, which face continued pressure. On paper, if the action plan is successfully implemented, most of the country’s forests will come under the management of these villages. Although it is yet to be formally approved, the first steps of implementation for the action plan have already begun, as have fundraising activities to meet the budget, which stands at around USD 40 million.

RECOFTC held its national and regional work planning some months ago. This action plan was a significant part of these discussions, building on the formal and informal conversations that had taken place prior to the work planning. The country workplans, which will be implemented over a 12-month period starting 1 October, complement existing projects and programme work being undertaken by the RECOFTC Lao PDR country office. Examples include the UN-REDD initiative, ‘Climate change mitigation through social forestry actions in ASEAN countries’, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the ‘Customary Land Tenure Recognition in Forest Areas in Lao PDR’ initiative under the Mekong Region Land Governance Project Phase 3. The work that RECOFTC is doing under its agreements with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as part of the UN-REDD initiative will directly support the action plan.

Over the next few months, activities under this initiative include working with FAO and the Department of Forestry on strengthening the systematic monitoring of village forestry. This includes assessing how village forest management plans are developed, used, reported and monitored to ensure they are supporting the well-being of villagers as well as the sustainable management of the forests themselves. We will also be looking at the contributions of village forests to climate change mitigation. 

These activities will be a natural progression of the work we have done in collaboration with FAO and the Department of Forestry so far. They will help us better support the government of Lao PDR as it rolls out the action plan, which has four interlinked criteria – poverty, land concession, land encroachment and illegal logging – for prioritising villages. We are well placed to support the government in using these criteria systematically, building on the initial findings from our monitoring of the impacts of village forestry.

Working with UNEP, we will build on past work to help villagers receive tangible benefits from their forests. Specifically, we will focus on supporting the development of business and investment plans for village forestry enterprises around timber and non-timber forest products value chains. 

One of the first things that made an impression on me upon my joining RECOFTC in January this year was the organization’s focus on investments in partnerships – both with governments and with non-governmental organizations. Our partnerships with FAO and UNEP in this case are crucial to the success of our work. In supporting the Lao government to implement the action plan, we also take a long-term approach to supporting village forestry in Lao PDR. This approach is vital, for only then will villagers in the country be able to invest in and benefit from their forests. 

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Chaipheth Phommachanh is co-director at RECOFTC Lao PDR.

The UN-REDD Initiative, which is supported by SDC and being implemented by FAO and UNEP, in partnership with RECOFTC and NTFP-EP, is working to strengthen the evidence base for climate mitigation contributions of social forestry that facilitates integration of related actions in NDCs and that enhances climate finance opportunities. The Initiative is working at the ASEAN level, as well as in three pilot countries – Cambodia, Indonesia and Lao PDR.

RECOFTC’s work is made possible with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Government of Sweden.