Presented at the World Bank conference on Responsible Land and Governance, Washington, DC, March 2017

1. Analyzing the enabling environment for
transforming forest landscape conflicts: the
example of Lao PDR
Seth Kane
Richard Hackman, David Gritten, Thipphasone Luangphay,
Bounyadeth Phouangmala
RECOFTC - The Center for People and Forests
March 21, 2017

2. RESEARCH METHODS
AND FRAMEWORK

3. • How and why forest landscape
conflicts are happening?
• Who is addressing them?
• What can be done to prevent
conflict or improve conflict
outcomes?
Key Research Questions

4. Research Methods
• Structured literature
media and legal reviews
• National level interviews
with government, intl. orgs;
CSOs; private sector
• Data from 3 field sites
• Multi-stakeholder workshop

5. CAUSES AND LEVELS
OF CONFLICT

6. • Legal and policy frameworks
• Tenure security
• Participation and information
• Leadership
• Benefit sharing
• Competition over resources
• Conflict management mechanisms
• Capacities and resources
Causes of Conflict

7. Escalating stages in natural
resource conflicts:
1. feeling anxiety
2. debate and critiques
3. lobby and persuasion
4. protest and campaigning
5. restricting access
6. contestation in the courts
7. intimidation and physical
exchange
8. nationalization and
internationalization
Levels of conflict

8. CONFLICT STAKEHOLDERS,
IMPACTS AND MODALITIES

9. CONFLICT STAKEHOLDERS
• Forest landscape dependent
communities
• Government of Lao PDR
• National assembly
• Private sector (nat./intl.)
• SMEs
• International aid agencies
• International finance institutions

10. • Impacts of conflict depend on
stakeholders, issues, conflict intensity,
and manner in which they are
addressed
• Conflicts can be positive or negative – most
impacts negative
• Economic, social and environmental impacts
CONFLICT IMPACTS

11. • Inter and intra-community conflicts managed
through local officials and VMC’s
• Community-outsider conflicts are most
debilitating and increasingly complex
• No credible mechanisms to manage power
imbalances, especially government actors
• No formal capacity development for conflict
management and transformation
CONFLICT MODALITIES

12. • National Assembly actors most progressive
in calling for reforms
• New Lao PM shows signs of reform to
address government performance and
impunity for officials
• Civil society still too weak to serve as a
counter balance
POLITICAL FACTORS

13. • Systematic data not collected by
government -- gap in assessing the extent of
the problem and trends
• Lao newspapers never reported resource
conflicts as recently as five years ago, but
are increasingly reporting these conflicts
CONFLICT DATA

14. TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM
,
Forest landscape governance
mechanisms
FLEGT-VPA, REDD+, VGGT, IFC SEIA
standards
Conflict modalities
National Assembly, Local authorities,
Village Mediation Committees
Capacity development program
- Training and learning networks
- Piloting and demonstration
- Research, analysis and
synthesis
- Strategic communication
Causes of forest landscape conflict
Impacts of mainstreaming a transformative approach
Economic: More equitable and sustainable private sector approaches
Environmental: Reduced illegal logging and environmental development
Social: Increased CSO/community understanding of forest governance
policies; enhanced community participation in policy making

15. MECHANISMS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

16. Some approaches introduced by REDD+ and
FLEGT may reduce conflict by:
• increasing participation of marginalized
groups
• mainstreaming multi-stakeholder
processes within forest management
• improve clarity of tenure
• establishing grievance redress
mechanisms and implementation of Free,
Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)
MECHANISM S - REDD+/FLEGT

17. RECOMMENDATIONS - SHORT TERM
• Encourage early consultations prior to
making decisions about land-use changes
• Promote co-management arrangements
in which actors share management
responsibilities and benefits
• Ensure that communities benefit from land
investment activities
• Call upon governments to remain neutral in
community-private sector disputes

18. • Clarify tenure arrangements and
respect local resource management
• Strengthen collaborative negotiation
and mediation skills
• Ensure better coordination between
government agencies with overlapping
mandates
• Integrate local livelihood strategies into
conservation policy, as unilateral
management can exacerbate conflict
RECOMMENDATIONS - LONG TERM

19. Local people hold the key to healthy forests
www.recoftc.org
THANK YOU