Land degradation in the Lao PDR Discourses and policy》.pdfVIP

Land Use Policy 27 (2010) 424–439 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Land Use Policy j o u rn al h omepage: w w w. elsev /locate/lan dusepo l Land degradation in the Lao PDR: Discourses and policy Guillaume Lestrelin a,b,∗ a University of Durham, Durham, UK b IRD, UR 176, Vientiane, Lao Democratic People’s Republic a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: While there is an important body of research on environmental discourses and policy in Southeast Asia, Received 30 November 2007 the situation in the Lao PDR remains understudied. This paper builds on debates related to environ- Received in revised form 29 May 2009 mental change and knowledge production and examines the socio-political construction of the current Accepted 6 June 2009 mainstream discourse on land degradation in Laos. It highlights that, despite significant uncertainties as regard the extent and severity of the issue, land degradation in the uplands is represented by the Laotian Keywords: authorities and many of their development partners as a major and imminent threat to the development Land degradation of the country. The paper also examines the way this perspective is translated into policies specifically Environmental narratives Rural development policy aimed at resolving the upland issue and proposes an alternative reading of this process where main- P