Negotiating the forest-fallow interface: Benzoin trees in the multifunctional shifting cultivation landscapes of Lao PDR

ABSTRACTED FROM INTRODUCTION: Lao PDR's uplands is at a crossroads, faced with disparate possible futures. On one hand, it may follow a land-sparing development pathway that emphasizes intensification through commercialization, investment in commodity-oriented exports and increased foreign direct investment alongside the modernization of forest-conservation measures. On the other, there is the possibility of land-sharing for development and conservation, building on the unique strengths of its agricultural and ecological base and the indigenous cultural practices of the country’s multifunctional uplands. Depending on the direction it follows, shifting cultivation faces an uncertain and increasingly threatened future in Lao PDR. The success of the multifunctional, land-sharing development and conservation pathway depends on a number of inter-related factors. The most important of these is the ecological and socio-economic viability of shifting cultivation systems and the degree to which rural households are able to secure access to and control over their resources. The viability of shifting cultivation relates in some measure to the management of fallows as an intermediate land use between cropped lands and forests. Our research suggests that benzoin production in long-fallow shifting cultivation systems in the Lao uplands is a preferred alternative to either a transition toward sedentary commercial cultivation of commodity crops, on one hand, or strict forest protection on the other. But a better enabling environment is needed, one that values these systems and provides tenure security for upland communities.

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