Community participation for forest watershed management in Laos

ABSTRACT:

During recent decades land degradation and destruction of forest cover has progressed rapidly in Laos. This is a result of shifting agriculture, in addition to destruction by bombing and use of defoliants during the war in Vietnam. To reverse this trend, the main phase of FAO/UNDP project on forest development and watershed management was launched in late 1985 to train, demonstrate, and assist in implementation of various watershed management and community foresty techniques for upland conservation. The objective of this paper is to show that with support from government and the local community, suitable watershed management could be achieved by large scale training of various levels of personnel, more than 53 percent of which were village leaders and workers, under the guidance of extension offices in 13 watersheds at Luang Prabang; demonstrating technology, improving yields to 2.6 T/ha of paddy yields compared to 0.G T/ha in shifting cultivation making technology available to farmers, and (3) providing incentives representing 60 percent of the cost for work and hand tools. These elements, plus full participation of the rural people in planning and demonstrations, resulted in development of more than 1,930 ha (4, 767 ac) of upland conservation works during 1985–89.