Economic valuation of land uses in Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR: Can REDD+ be effective in maintaining forests?

The rapid economic growth in Lao PDR over the last two decades has been driven by the natural resource sectors and commercialization in the agriculture sector. Rural landscapes are being transformed over the past decade from land use mosaics of subsistence and smallholder farms to large-scale planta...

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Autores principales: Wong, Grace Y., Darachantara, S, Soukkhamthat, T.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: MDPI 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94524
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author Wong, Grace Y.
Darachantara, S
Soukkhamthat, T.
author_browse Darachantara, S
Soukkhamthat, T.
Wong, Grace Y.
author_facet Wong, Grace Y.
Darachantara, S
Soukkhamthat, T.
author_sort Wong, Grace Y.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description The rapid economic growth in Lao PDR over the last two decades has been driven by the natural resource sectors and commercialization in the agriculture sector. Rural landscapes are being transformed over the past decade from land use mosaics of subsistence and smallholder farms to large-scale plantations dominated by a few commercial crops. The capacity of these commercial agriculture plantations to alleviate rural poverty, part of the Government of Lao PDR’s national development policy, is increasingly weighed against its long-term impacts on ecosystem services and sustainability of land and forest resources. We used an extended cost-benefit approach (CBA) to integrate certain environmental elements to traditional financial analysis for a comparative look at four land use systems in the northern part of the country. The CBA results demonstrate that commercial agriculture (maize and rubber plantations) does have the potential to support poverty alleviation in the short-run. It, however, exposes the land to serious environmental risks. By comparison, the traditional land uses studied (upland rice farming and non-timber forest products collecting) are largely subsistence activities that are still considered as sustainable, though this is increasingly affected by changing market and population dynamics. The results suggest that longer-term environmental costs can potentially cancel out short-term gains from the commercialization to mono-crop agriculture. Incentives for conserving ecosystem services (such as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism) may have a potential role in supporting diversification of traditional livelihoods and increasing the competitiveness of maintaining forests.
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spelling CGSpace945242025-06-17T08:24:10Z Economic valuation of land uses in Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR: Can REDD+ be effective in maintaining forests? Wong, Grace Y. Darachantara, S Soukkhamthat, T. agribusiness land use commercialization forest products forest products industry forest resources nontimber forest products The rapid economic growth in Lao PDR over the last two decades has been driven by the natural resource sectors and commercialization in the agriculture sector. Rural landscapes are being transformed over the past decade from land use mosaics of subsistence and smallholder farms to large-scale plantations dominated by a few commercial crops. The capacity of these commercial agriculture plantations to alleviate rural poverty, part of the Government of Lao PDR’s national development policy, is increasingly weighed against its long-term impacts on ecosystem services and sustainability of land and forest resources. We used an extended cost-benefit approach (CBA) to integrate certain environmental elements to traditional financial analysis for a comparative look at four land use systems in the northern part of the country. The CBA results demonstrate that commercial agriculture (maize and rubber plantations) does have the potential to support poverty alleviation in the short-run. It, however, exposes the land to serious environmental risks. By comparison, the traditional land uses studied (upland rice farming and non-timber forest products collecting) are largely subsistence activities that are still considered as sustainable, though this is increasingly affected by changing market and population dynamics. The results suggest that longer-term environmental costs can potentially cancel out short-term gains from the commercialization to mono-crop agriculture. Incentives for conserving ecosystem services (such as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism) may have a potential role in supporting diversification of traditional livelihoods and increasing the competitiveness of maintaining forests. 2014 2018-07-03T11:01:20Z 2018-07-03T11:01:20Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94524 en Open Access MDPI Wong, G.Y., Darachantara, S., Soukkhamthat, T. . 2014. Economic valuation of land uses in Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR : Can REDD+ be effective in maintaining forests?. Land, 3 (3) : 1059-1074. https://doi.org/10.3390/land3031059
spellingShingle agribusiness
land use
commercialization
forest products
forest products industry
forest resources
nontimber forest products
Wong, Grace Y.
Darachantara, S
Soukkhamthat, T.
Economic valuation of land uses in Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR: Can REDD+ be effective in maintaining forests?
title Economic valuation of land uses in Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR: Can REDD+ be effective in maintaining forests?
title_full Economic valuation of land uses in Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR: Can REDD+ be effective in maintaining forests?
title_fullStr Economic valuation of land uses in Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR: Can REDD+ be effective in maintaining forests?
title_full_unstemmed Economic valuation of land uses in Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR: Can REDD+ be effective in maintaining forests?
title_short Economic valuation of land uses in Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR: Can REDD+ be effective in maintaining forests?
title_sort economic valuation of land uses in oudomxay province lao pdr can redd be effective in maintaining forests
topic agribusiness
land use
commercialization
forest products
forest products industry
forest resources
nontimber forest products
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94524
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AT darachantaras economicvaluationoflandusesinoudomxayprovincelaopdrcanreddbeeffectiveinmaintainingforests
AT soukkhamthatt economicvaluationoflandusesinoudomxayprovincelaopdrcanreddbeeffectiveinmaintainingforests