Governing Land Concessions in Laos

This chapter examines processes of land grabbing in Laos, where the government has granted 4 percent of the national territory to foreign and domestic plantation, mining, and hydropower investors. A major portion of this land has been developed through the coercive dispossession of peasant land. However, the development of land concessions has not been a frictionless process as peasants have become increasingly frustrated with the expropriation of their land and have found various ways to voice their concerns within the country’s constrained political environment. The analysis focuses on how land concessions in Laos are governed in ways that produce uneven geographies. Typically, scholarship on governance is concerned with formal rules, regulations, and mechanisms. However, we take a critical and relational approach that views land governance as a process driven by the relationships amongst heterogeneous actors that shape the decisions made and actions taken towards the use, management, ownership, and transformation of land. While the Lao government has made significant reforms to land-related policies in recent years, we show how these changes are driven by dynamic social and political relationships amongst state agencies, foreign investors, and peasant communities.

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