Bouahong Sousath
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2. Basic Policy and Legal Framework of Forest Management and Production Forest in Lao PDR
Ownership
Natural forests and forestlands, like other natural resources including land and minerals, belong to the national community and the State represents the national
community in the management and allocation of forest and forest lands for rational use by individuals and organizations Forestry Law 1996.
Forest Classification and Management
Production forests in Lao PDR represent a distinct legal forest category, set apart by the Forest Law of 1996 from Conservation Forests, Protection Forests,
Regeneration Forests, and Degraded Forests, the other legal forest categories. The uniqueness of the Lao forest classification system lies with the latter two categories.
Given the vast areas of young fallow forest and degraded forest land in Lao PDR, these categories make explicit the country’s intentions to regenerate natural forests
by stabilizing shifting cultivation and putting to productive use degraded forest land by encouraging investment through allocation to farmers and organizations.
Establishment and general management plans for the first three forest categories are the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry MAF in consultation
with concerned central and local organizations. Local agriculture and forestry organizations, namely the Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office PAFO and the
District Agriculture and Forestry Extension Office DAFEO carry out actual day-to- day management of each forest.
Decree 59PM2002 provides for the establishment and management of large, contiguous tracts of production forests known as Production Forest Areas PFA. A
PFA may cover one or more districts within a province. The part of a PFA that is located in a district is known as a Forest Management Area FMA which is further
subdivided into Forest Management Sub-areas also known as sub-FMA, the smallest unit of forest management in the country.
Villages are allocated village forests mainly through the land and forest allocation program and their forests are categorized into five categories or less according to the
actual situation of villages in an agreement between villages and District Agriculture and Forestry Extension Offices. In village production forests or village use forests,
harvesting of trees for use by the villagers is allowed Forest Law Art 28 and MAF Reg. No. 535 on Management of Village Forests. Villagers also participate in
commercial logging and other production forest management activities when a Production Forest Area exists within their boundaries.
Current Status of Production Forest
There are some 106 unofficial Production Forest Areas PFAs in Lao PDR with a total area of 3,207,000 hectares. The principal provinces where the unofficial
production forest areas exist are Vientiane 8 PFAs, 503,000 hectares; Savannakhet
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8 PFAs, 429,000 hectares; Bolikhamxay 11 PFAs, 359,000 hectares; and Xayaboury 13 PFAs, 350,000 hectares. Almost half of these ~1.55 million hectares have been
the subject of some kind of management planning with the largest areas in Savannakhet 7 PFAs, 327,000 hectares, Khammouane 6 PFAs, 309,000 hectares, Oudomxay
5 PFAs, 148,000 hectares and Xayaboury 7 PFAs, 105,000 hectares.
Without a clear legal basis for boundary location and management planning, these forests, with the exclusion of a few in Savannakhet and Khammouane, are not
under systematic management and there is little specific information available about them. It is known that forest fragmentation has increased, density has decreased
drastically and areas dominated by large trees and pole size trees have decreased, while areas containing only small trees have increased. In general the rate of
deforestation is high and seems to be accelerating. However, eight production forest areas are now in the process of official establishment according to PM Decree 59.
3. Brief History of Community Forestry in Production Forest
Kategori