Land Concessions, Land Tenure, and Livelihood Change: Plantation Development in Attapeu Province, Southern Laos

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This paper seeks to add to the growing literature on land concessions by examining a recent, high-level concession as a means of understanding three aspects related to concessionary investments: (1) the process by which concessions are awarded and implemented; (2) the intricate relationship between land use, land tenure, and land ownership in the face of concessions; and (3) the way in which village and household livelihoods are impacted due to such massive land use and ownership changes. The case study at hand is the concession of land use rights to log timber and grow rubber on a 10,000 hectare (ha) plot of land for 35 years in Attapeu province, southern Laos. These rights were awarded to the Hoàng Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) Joint Stock Company, a multinational Vietnamese corporation with diversified business activities including rubber growth and processing, mining, hydropower, real estate, and sports franchises. HAGL was able to acquire such a large tract of land in part because of aid they provided to the Lao government to construct the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games athletes’ village. The connection between the athletes’ village and the concession is little known and thus the report aims to highlight the way in which the SEA Games, in addition to being a sporting event, is also a project of national development with political, economic, and social implications.

Available for download

Report