Hydropower resettlement and livelihood adaptation The Nam Mang 3 project in Laos》.pdfVIP

Water resources and rural development 5 (2015) 17–30 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Water resources and rural development journal homepage: /locate/wrr Hydropower resettlement and livelihood adaptation: The Nam Mang 3 project in Laos Mayvong Sayatham a,*, Diana Suhardiman b a Faculty of Natural Resources Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand b International Water Management Institute, Southeast Asia Regional Office, Vientiane, Laos A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Mekong hydropower is developing rapidly. Laos is at the forefront Received 17 January 2015 of this development. While hydropower development supports the Accepted 26 January 2015 country’s economic growth, many observers have highlighted the Available online 2 February 2015 potential negative impacts for people’s livelihoods. Taking the Nam Mang 3 hydropower project as a case study, we examine the impacts Keywords: of hydropower development on farming households of differing live- Economic development Livelihood assets lihood assets and resources, and how they have responded to these Reconstruction impacts. Linking livelihood asset substitution with livelihood out- Compensation comes, we examine factors constraining livelihood adaptation and Household income how these shape rural households’ strategies to cope with socio- economic and environmental im