"Ethnic groups starve as forests are cleared in Laos" 26 June 2023

Land acquisitions in Laos are forcing many Hmong ethnic minority groups to lose access to the forests that traditionally provided them with food. There are fears these land deals will worsen the hunger and malnutrition the Hmong face in their already impoverished households. [...]

Launched in the late 1990s, land acquisitions were a Lao government strategy to boost local economic development by transferring land rights to domestic and foreign investors for an agreed period of time.

A 2020 report, released by the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) of Switzerland’s University of Bern, indicated that a total of 1,758 land deals – covering areas of 11.75 million hectares, or roughly 50% of Laos’ territory – were granted to investors. This number was estimated based on data collected between 2014 and 2017.

The land taken up by investors has been mainly used in the mining sector, agriculture and tree plantations, especially rubber and eucalyptus. Foreign investment accounts for 61% of the total area granted for land deals. Half of these come from China, Vietnam and Thailand. [...]

Somporn*, a social worker in northern Laos, said a Chinese investor came to her area and cleared a forest to grow bananas, betel nuts and other types of edible plants. The harvested crops are then sent back to China to feed people there, while local villagers in Laos who are affected by these land deals go hungry. [...]

Due to local communities’ complaints, the Lao government issued a series of moratoria on land deals, most recently in 2018, to prevent new concessions for mining, rubber and eucalyptus plantations. [...]