This is an announcement to invite you to the CSEAS Colloquium for September 2013.

Date Time: Monday, 30 September 2013, 16:00~

Place: Middle-sized Meeting Room (No.332), 3rd Floor, Inamori Foundation Building, Kyoto University

Speaker: Ms. Latsamay Sylavong, Visiting Research Fellow of CSEAS.

Title: “Importance of biodiversity for rural livelihoods in Lao PDR: A case study of multi village Mak Jong management group in Pathoumphone district, Lao PDR ”

Abstract:
Lao PDR environmental endowments represent a heritage of critical natural, cultural and economic values at the regional and global level. This is partly true due to the continuing decrease in biological diversity, forest cover and water resources. The rapid growth in economic development associated with the focus on national poverty alleviation goals (freeing the country from the LDC by 2020), has made the government focus on the natural resource base to be the backbone of the Lao economy. On-going challenges of large infrastructure (hydro-power and mining), plantation and logging have resulted in dramatic changes in the ecosystems and loss of biodiversity, and this has had an extremely negative impact on the livelihoods of people in this country as about 70% of the population relies on as their means of livelihood, like small-scale agriculture and forest resources and wildlife. During the past two decades, many projects supported by different international communities and the government work both at the policy and community levels to support sustainable use of natural resources and proper enforcement of conservation regulations, including development of different institutional arrangements to engage local communities in various types of natural resource management. The associated issues remain unsolved as the current legal frameworks are not clear regarding the roles and rights of local institutions and communities in natural resource management.Power still remains with the central government, which is still weak.

This talk will introduce the processes of sustainable forest management and analyze the type and extent of decentralization practiced in Pathoumphone district (Champassak Province in southern Laos) on the development of local institution (Mak Jong management group- MJG) and related legal framework. The MJG was created due to the lack of management system in the past and a continuous decline of MJ trees, and MJG focused on sustainable management of malva nut (Lao: maakjong), Scaphiummacropodum, a plant with the fruits used for medicine and with the economic importance to 11villages in this district adjacent to the national protected areas (Xepiane and Dong Hoa Sao NPAs). Villagers in both groups formed themselves as strong local level representatives taking actions for natural resource governance under their areas of responsibility and followed the agreements and legal frameworks, including mechanisms for benefit sharing among villagers. Transferred rights to local communities and institutions over forests are the most significant efforts to conserve and rehabilitate forests, while at the same time, it has been able to provide local communities ownership to their areas with the opportunities for their economic activities, such as agriculture, livestock and ecotourism. Even though this is a successful initiative, villagers are still concerned about the long-term viability of MJG, as they have not yet received a complete transfer power. Therefore the decentralization on natural resource should be taken into account by both central and local governments in order to compromise the needs and priorities of local people and government interests in order to achieve government commitments and national targets.

Bio note:
Ms. Latsamay Sylavong is a Visiting Research Fellow at CSEAS. She got MSc from Australia, after studying Forestry Science and Community Forestry in Czechoslovakia. She worked at the Lao Forestry Department for 8 years and IUCN – The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources for 15 years on various positions, including 6 years as Country Director. Much of Latsamay’s previous work has focused on conservation interests with the link to sustainable livelihood from policy to grass root levels, including leading roles with the government partners on implementing various international conventions and agreements (Ramsar, CBD, CITES, WH).

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