Smallholder Teak and Agrarian Change in Northern Laos

Newby, Jonathan C.; Cramb, Rob; Sakanphet, Somphanh; McNamara, Sean

doi:10.1007/s11842-011-9167-x

Cited by 36 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…In the present context, Newby et al [1] have shown that the boom in teak planting in northern Laos, while contributing to a forest transition at the landscape scale, is accelerating processes of agrarian differentiation, with a small group of better-off farmers and urban-based outsiders capturing the majority of the benefits, while those with the greatest dependence on swidden agriculture are often made worse off through declining access to land. This underscores Hetcht's [20] argument that we must seek to understand how the interactions between regional and local forces, agrarian and non-agrarian livelihoods, formal and informal economies, and national and international processes all interact to produce observed forest trends.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Driven by a range of incentives, teak plantations have become increasingly prominent in the province of Luang Prabang, especially in villages close to Luang Prabang City [1]. Both smallholders and urban-based landowners are now involved in small-scale teak plantations, either by planting land they previously used for swidden agriculture or by acquiring existing teak stands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Newby et al [1] found that there was large diversity in the livelihoods of households in five teak farming villages of northern Laos. Their analysis showed that teak planting had been more extensive among households with a longer history of settlement, where the household head was older and better educated, where household members had off-farm sources of income, and where the household had access to paddy land and so was more likely to be self-sufficient in rice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this paper we build on the analysis of Newby et al [1] through a series of case studies based on a typology of households in the five surveyed villages. The case studies are used to explore the relative importance of the endogenous and exogenous drivers identified by Lambin and Meyfroidt [21] in understanding and evaluating the expansion of small-scale teak plantations in northern Laos.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Forest Transitions and Rural Livelihoods: Multiple Pathways of Smallholder Teak Expansion in Northern Laos

Newby

Cramb

Sakanphet³

2014

Land

Self Cite

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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.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Forest Transitions and Rural Livelihoods: Multiple Pathways of Smallholder Teak Expansion in Northern Laos

Newby

Cramb

Sakanphet³

2014

Land

Self Cite

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“…As a traditional farming in the pan-tropical region, swidden farming has been experiencing a rapid conversion and replacement from primary forest to monoculture plantations in SEA [10], such as oil palm [46,47], rubber [48,49], timber products (e.g., eucalyptus [50,51] and teak [52]), and other cash crops (e.g., cassava and sugar). Nevertheless, slash-and-burn techniques are firstly used to prepare a plot of land (swidden) for plantation agriculture without any doubt.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Swidden Agriculture in Southeast Asia

Zhu

Jiang

et al. 2014

Remote Sensing

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Swidden agriculture is by far the dominant land use system in the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia (SEA). It provides various valuable subsistence products to local farmers, mostly the poor ethnic minority groups. Controversially, it is also closely connected with a number of environmental issues. With the strengthening regional economic cooperation in SEA, swidden agriculture has experienced drastic transformations into other diverse market-oriented land use types since the 1990s. However, there is very limited information on the basic geographical and demographic data of swidden agriculture and the socio-economic and biophysical effects of the transformations. International programs, such as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), underscore the importance of monitoring and evaluating swidden agriculture and its transition to reduce carbon emission due to deforestation and forest degradation. In this context, along with the accessibility of Landsat historical imagery, remote sensing based techniques will offer an effective way to detect and monitor the locations and extent of swidden agriculture. Many approaches for investigating fire occurrence and burned area can be introduced for swidden agriculture mapping due to the common feature of fire relatedness. In this review paper, four broad approaches involving spectral signatures, phenological characteristics, statistical theory and landscape ecology were summarized for swidden agriculture delineation. Five research priorities about swidden agriculture involving remote sensing techniques, spatial pattern, change, drivers and impacts were proposed accordingly. To our knowledge, a synthesis review on the remote sensing and outlook on swidden agriculture has not been reported yet. This review paper aims to give a comprehensive overview of swidden agriculture studies in the domains of debated definition, trends, remote sensing methods and OPEN ACCESSRemote Sens. 2014, 6 1655 outlook research in SEA undertaken in the past two decades.

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