Logging
Logging in the Nakai region began sometime in 1987 or 1988. Logging operations in the region are monopolised by the military run company Bolisat Phatana Khet Phu Doi (BPKP). The BPKP is an important player in the region. It operates with the mandate to ‘develop’ and to secure in a military sense the mountainous regions of the country that include the Nakay Plateau and the mountains to the east in Khammouane and Bolikhamxai Provinces. Funding for their operations come almost entirely from the profits of timber and non-timber exploitation of forests under concession in these two provinces.
Since the MOU for Nam Theun 2 was signed in 1993, logging on the Nakay
Plateau has accelerated with the granting of logging concessions in the inundation zone to
the BPKP. The granting of the concessions indicated that the government had made a
decision that the Nam Theun 2 project would eventually go ahead despite the incomplete
nature of the Environmental Assessments, the uncertainty of the financing and the lack of
a Power purchase Agreement with EGAT.
Logging in the inundation zone continues today. The logging on the Plateau is carried out
by Vietnamese subcontractors to the BPKP and the logs are trucked out to holding pens
along the road to Lak Sao and Thakek. Some of the logs find their way into sawmills in
Thakhek, a large chipboard factory at the district town of Muang Nakay and a large plywood
factory near Gnommalat, all run by the BPKP. However the majority of the logs are exported
to Thailand and Vietnam.
Photo: Satoru Matsumoto
A Vietnamese chainsaw
operator in the
forests near Ban Nakay Tai
Photo: Philip Hirsch
Pine logs being loaded onto transport trucks near Ban
Don
Photo: Andrew Wyatt
A Vietnamese logging truck near Ban Sop On
transporting logs to Muang Nakay
Photo: Andrew Wyatt
Logs being transported from the Plateau to Thakek
Photo: Satoru Matsumoto
A log holding pen on the road between Gnommolat and
Thakek
While the chipboard factory near Muang Nakay does provide jobs for some villagers on the Nakay Plateau, the sustainability of such an operation remains questionable once the inundation zone is completely logged. In the meantime, the forests that the villages rely upon for subsistence and income generation are disappearing as the BPKP continues to log the forests in anticipation that the Nam Theun 2 project will eventually go ahead.
