Shifting Cultivation in Laos: Transitions in Policy and Perspective

This report addresses the complex issue of shifting cultivation, which was brought up at the 2011 Round Table Implementation Meeting between the Lao government and international donor partners. As a result of the meeting, the following task was assigned to MAF and the Co-chairs of the Sector Working Group on Agriculture and Rural Development (SWG-ARD) #8 Agricultural land management to ensure all Lao people especially those [who] are living in upland areas can have access to agricultural land particularly relevant to the area of slash and burn agriculture. This desk study was assigned to examine the current government policy on shifting cultivation as well as the extensive literature on the topic. There are three central focus areas of the report, which will be condensed here in the executive summary, statistical estimates of the extent of shifting cultivation in Laos, an analysis of the GOLs shifting cultivation policies, and an annotated bibliography of 26 studies of shifting cultivation.