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Initial spacing of teak (Tectona grandis) in northern Lao PDR: Impacts on the growth of teak and companion crops The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture. CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.

Smallholder teak (Tectona grandis) plantations have been identified as a potentially valuable component of upland farming systems in northern Laos that can contribute to a "livelihood transition" from subsistence-oriented swidden agriculture to a more commercially-oriented farming system, thereby bringing about a "forest transition" at the landscape scale. In recent years, teak smallholdings have become increasingly prominent in the province of Luang Prabang, especially in villages close to Luang Prabang City. In this paper, we draw on a household survey conducted in five teak-growing villages and case studies of different household types to explore the role that small-scale forestry has played in both livelihood and land-use transitions. Drawing on a classification of forest transitions, we identify three transition pathways that apply in the study villages-the "economic development" pathway, the "smallholder, tree-based, land-use intensification" pathway, and the "state forest policy" pathway. The ability of households to integrate teak into their farming system, manage the woodlots effectively, and maintain ownership until the plantation reaches maturity varies significantly between these pathways. Households with adequate land resources but scarce labor due to the effects of local economic development are better able to establish and hold onto teak woodlots, but less able to adopt beneficial management techniques. Households that are land-constrained are motivated to follow a path of land-used intensification, but need more productive agroforestry systems to sustain incomes over time. Households that are induced to plant teak mainly by land-use OPEN ACCESSLand 2014, 3 483 policies that threaten to deprive them of their land, struggle to efficiently manage or hold on to their woodlots in the long term. Thus, even when it is smallholders driving the process of forest transition via piecemeal land-use changes, there is potential for resource-poor households to be excluded from the potential livelihood benefits or to be further impoverished by the transition. We argue that interventions to increase smallholder involvement in the forestry sector need to take explicit account of the initial variation in livelihood platforms and in alternative transition pathways at the household scale in order to pursue more inclusive "forest-and-livelihood" transitions in rural areas.

Teak is an important forest plantation species in Lao PDR (Laos), that has been planted extensively by smallholders, supplying domestic industries and international markets. There have been significant advances in the intensive silvicultural management of teak focused on the production of highquality timber. Laos is not an exception. With support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, there have been advances in the understanding and knowledge of appropriate management practices for smallholder teak, as well as development of supporting technologies (i.e. ex situ conservation, genetic improvement, growth models, thinning and pruning prescriptions, and agroforestry systems). This paper summarises published information on the silviculture and management of teak, including improvement of genetic resources, stocking rate, thinning and agroforestry systems used in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania, and relates this to the current situation in northern Laos. The challenge is to now transfer this knowledge to the teak smallholders, professionals, educators and policy decision makers of Laos.

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