Industrial tree growers struggle to find markets
Industrial tree growers struggle to find markets
Farmers are suffering amid price and market issues in the wake of expansions to industrial tree plantations.
The increase in the number of plantations may affect food security in the future as well as socio-economic development, a Lao researcher has warned.
Farmers in several areas have been unable to find markets for their eucalyptus and agarwood trees, Dr Palikone Thalongsengchanh said in a report he prepared for the government.
Meanwhile rubber growers around the country are faced with a slump in the market price of rubber.
The report recommended that the government make careful studies into the viability of such projects before approving concessions for industrial tree plantations.
The government should also lay down effective measures for a systematic approach to management, particularly concerning documentation such as contracts, agreements and other documents relevant to state land leases and concessions.
The management of agricultural land and forests has proved to be weak, despite laws and a prime ministerial instruction governing the process.
In practice, there has been continued encroachment in large areas of natural forests and the felling of trees is still commonplace, the report noted.
Incompetent management and use of land for both agriculture and livestock has led to paddy fields in towns and rural areas being filled in and built on. The lack of a systematic approach to land use has resulted in the indiscriminate construction of factories and workshops.
Such practices have caused a gradual reduction in paddy fields and irrigated
agricultural land, and loss of the Party and government's money.
In some areas, communities have been resettled in conservation forest areas, and there has been uncontrollable use of natural resources and forested land without any safeguards.
This situation has allowed people to freely encroach on conservation forests, water source protection forests and areas of bio-diversity without permission being granted, Dr Palikone said.
In some areas state land has been illegally appropriated by some individuals.
In these circumstances the Party and state are more likely to experience losses than gains and could face further risks in the future.
These risks concern food shortages, the drying up of streams, inability to supply water for hydropower generation in the rainy season, and possible impacts on tourism.
