Natural Resources Management in Lao PDR can be preindicated by the following statements:
- the country’s most valuable assets are land, water and forest
- the water and forest resources are in danger of losing their monetary and cultural value in the long term
- sustainable economic development cannot be attained without the optimisation of natural resource use and conservation.
Lao PDR faces many dilemmas of resource-based economic growth. Environmental risks of inappropriate resource development will translate directly and quickly into livelihood threats. On the other hand, that reality has to contend with issues of poverty, public health and other development indicators which characterise the country as one of the "least developed" in the world.
Lowland rice farming at Namon in the Nam Ngum Watershed
The Theun River in Khammouane Province, the
site for the planned Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Dam
Logging on the Nakai Plateau