ENVIRONMENT-LAOS: Rubber Plantations Spawn Social Strife

IPS-Inter Press Service
http://www.ipsnews.net

By E-Souk

ATTAPEU, Laos, Jul 6 (IPS/Newsmekong) - For decades, rubber plantations in the country's Mekong region have reaped huge profits for local businessmen. However, this industry, long regarded a blessing, is now increasingly becoming a source of social strife.

"[Earlier], villagers used land for agriculture and collecting forest products to support their livelihood," complained Loun, the chief of Viengsai village in Attapeu province in the country's deep south. "Now, not only have we lost our land, but we have got no compensation."

Residents of this village complain that a Vietnamese-run rubber plantation usurped 60 hectares of their land last year. They were offered no compensation.

In 2008, Vietnamese workers first encroached on their lands with tractors and chainsaws, forcibly clearing land to plant rubber. Residents registered a complaint with the district and province governors, but have received no coherent response.

Much of the 60-hectare plantation has since perished due to neglect, but the company cleared all valuable timber from the area.

"The Vietnamese company does not care if the rubber plantations will have yields or not," said Loun. "Their focus is on logs for export. The relevant authorities know about this problem but have done nothing about it."

Laos has been experiencing a boom in rubber plantations over the past few years, mainly in response to a rising market demand for rubber from neighbouring countries. Generous incentives, including long-term concession agreements, given by the Lao government, have helped the industry flourish. But the industry is widely despised for its usurious tendencies, and could spark social strife, observers warn.

"I do not have land to earn a living because a rubber plantation has taken over my farmland," said Vonvai, a resident of Hadsan village, about 20 kilometres from the capital of Attapeu. Another rubber plantation usurped two hectares of his land.

"How will I live if I have no land for a rice farm? Other people are producing rice, but I cannot because I have no land," he rued.

"Government officials said the rubber plantations would help villagers eliminate poverty," said Soukan, another Hadsan resident. "But all they have done is make people poorer because they do not land to produce agriculture as foodstuff. How can we trust in the government’s policy?"

Attapeu province, the most southern province of Laos, which shares its border with Vietnam and Cambodia, is host to a rising number of mainly foreign controlled plantations. It covers an area of some 10,000 square kilometers, of which just over 7,000 hectares is forest, according to 2007 official figures. Only a fraction of this forest land is under cultivation.

"With approximately 71 percent of forest, Attapeu province is attracting many foreign companies keen to invest in logging, often in cooperation with local government authorities," said one observer who did not want to be identified.

According to information from the province’s land management authority, seven foreign companies have so far submitted proposals to the province for land concessions to grow rubber, covering an area of over 67,000 hectares. Local sources say many more companies are expected to submit proposals for concessions.

According to an anonymous source, rubber plantations is a front business. "In reality, the main aim of their investment is the cutting and export of logs," he said

IPS requested an interview with Vongsai Sitthilathvongsa, deputy director of Attapeu’s department of agriculture and forestry department about rubber projects, but he declined to comment. Other local government departments were similarly unprepared to talk on the record.

"The problems [around rubber plantations] happen because the government has given investors land concessions without careful survey," said one official of Attapeu provincial land management authority, who declined to be named. "They have not studied negative impacts of this carefully before allowing the investors to do the project."

"Provincial authorities only report positive things about the plantations to the central authorities," the official said.

The granting of land concessions for rubber plantations has caused problems for local people in other parts of southern Laos.

In May 2007, residents of Bachieng district, Champasak province complained that "more than 100 hectares of people’s land in the district had been taken over by investors," according to Vientiane Times, an English-language daily.

The investors used tractors to knock down trees without informing them. Many villagers lost coffee, durian, banana, cardamom and betel nut trees.

In May 2007, the newspaper quoted Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh as saying that the government would stop approving land concessions for investors until a more comprehensive strategy could be devised.

But central authorities appear to have taken no action to follow this announcement up.

"The government is yet to announce a clear policy on whether or not more rubber plantations should be approved," Bounthong Bouahom, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture and forest office told Vientiane Times.

Investors who request a concession on an area of more than 150 hectares must sign an agreement with the Lao National Land Management Authority. But concession requests for less than 150 hectares must be approved by the provincial land management authorities.

The government has also encouraged foreign investors in the rubber sector to implement a policy under which local villagers contribute their labour and land, while the investors provide funds, technical assistance and market. But observers argue that this has only encouraged economic exploitation.