Forests
The Forest Factor
With the largest intact forest cover in Indochina, Lao PDR has a unique opportunity to contribute to the global fight against climate change.
Sustainable forests and watershed areas provide food and livelihood practices to local communities and secure economic investments, acting as insurance against erosion and flood for roads and hydropower dams. Regional carbon trading schemes likewise give good incentive to conserve Lao PDR's forest cover, and help tackle the global challenge of climate change.Over the last 50 years, population and development pressures have decreased forest cover in Lao PDR from 70 percent to just over 40 percent, and that figure is shrinking by 0.6 percent a year.
If no action is taken to change this trend, Lao’s forests will dwindle to 31 percent by 2020 robbing the world of some of its most prized natural heritage, hindering national development and disadvantaging some of country’s most vulnerable communities.
Learn how our Global Forest & Trade Network-Laos is providing timber producers and processors with a framework to achieve Forestry Stewardship Council certification and make trade links with a global network of responsible buyers.
© Delphine Joseph
Rattan shoot is a staple food of many rural households. Here this woman is preparing the shoot for cooking.
© WWF
Mak Jong or Malva nut is a commonly harvested non-timber forest product across Lao PDR.
Non-timber Forest Products
Healthy forests are like supermarkets for many rural communities supplying food, medicine and materials for household handicrafts.
Lao PDR's resource-rich forests provide rural communities with food such as nuts, honey, shoots, herbs and mushrooms for cooking and market trade, building materials such as rattan, tree resin and timber for production, housing and handicrafts, and supply 80 percent of homes with wood-based energy.Learn how A Switch to Sustainable Rattan Harvest and Production project, supported by IKEA, is helping link communities in Lao PDR and Cambodia and Vietnam to multi-billion international rattan industry.
Marvellous Mak Jong
Every April, villagers from Ban Lao Nya, Pathoumphone District, Champasak Province, harvest Mak Jong or Malva Nut from the Dong Hua Sao Protected Area.
Harvesting this nut is no easy feat. Mak Jong grow to over 40 metres tall. To reach the nuts long nails are hammered into the tree’s trunk creating a ladder for harvesters to climb up. Once near the fruit at top harvesters bash the branches with a stick to dislodge the nuts.
This potentially dangerous climb is undertaken for Mak Jong’s medicinal properties and market value. Popular at local markets and as an export to China, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and France, when soaked in water Mak Jong produces a gelatine that is used to sooth sore throats, coughs and inflammation.
© Delphine Joseph
Looking for wildlife in Xe Pian National Protected Area, Champasak Province.
What Are National Protected Areas?
These are resource-rich forest, 50, 000 hectares or more, that are home to culturally diverse communities and some of the world's rarest wildlife.
Lao PDR has 20 National Protected Areas covering, together with provincial protected areas, almost 21 percent of the country. Living within these areas are many local communities who utilise the surrounding natural resources in their everyday life for food, shelter and trade.National Protected Areas provide home to some of the world’s rarest and most unique creatures, and offer valuable ecosystem functions that provide stability for land and water resources and infrastructure.
WWF's project work aims to strengthen management of National Protected Areas by increasing the participation of local communities and government in sustainable natural resource management.
© Philippe Coste
Community-run elephant rides from Kiet Ngong Village through Xe Pian National Protected Area.
Ecotourism and Xe Pian National Protected Area
How can Lao PDR's tourism sector continue to grow without destroying the wilderness that draws travellers and investors in the first place?
Xe Pian National Protected area spans 240,000 hectares across southern Champasak and Attapeu provinces, and is emblematic of what is attracting travellers from around the world to Lao PDR at a growing rate.
Along with popular destinations like Luang Prabang, Lao PDR’s World Heritage Listed former capital city, Xe Pian has a rich cultural and historical heritage and is one of the most important areas for biodiversity in the country. Today, there are at least 25 regionally and globally threatened mammals living within Xe Pian’s resource-rich forests.
Learn about Xe Pian National Protected Area and how our Natural Ecotourism in Xe Pian National Protected Area project is supporting local communities and business access the region’s growing tourism market.