Lao PDR has a population of 7 million people, 70% of whom live in rural areas and depend on forest resources for their livelihoods. The FIP project in Lao PDR aims to implement REDD+ activities through sustainable forest management and pilot forest landscape management in four provinces. The project works to strengthen forest management plans, promote livelihood activities, and implement regulations to reduce deforestation and illegal logging. Over its duration, the FIP project has helped bring 3.6 million hectares of land under management, launch over 21,000 village projects, and reduce deforestation and illegal logging in priority forest areas. The government is interested in continuing to leverage partnerships to develop landscape-level strategies that meet environmental

1. Phouthone Sophathilath
Department of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Lao PDR
Lao PDR
Forest Investment Program
(FIP)
Sustainable Forestry for
Rural Development (SUFORD-

2. Total land area = 236,800 sq. km, 70% of which
is mountainous and 58% covered by forests;
A low income country with a total population of ~
7mil., where ~70% of which live in rural areas
and heavily dependent on natural resources;
Forest landscape (NTFP) contributes 61-79% of
non-rice food consumption by weight, 44% of
subsistence value, 55% of cash income, and 46%
of the total household economy; timber,
recreation/spiritual/tourism, watershed protection
for reducing flood and erosion risk;
Forest policy allows customary rights for people
to use forest resources and forest land for
livelihoods, and strongly encouraged to
participate in forest management.
Country context

3. FIP in Lao PDR
o Lao PDR was part of the 8 pilot countries of the FIP.
o The forest carbon agenda is a high priority in the
national strategy for green growth, and FIP is
contributing to the national REDD+ strategy.
o The 2011 Lao PDR FIP investment plan identified
production forests as a key focus area to address
drivers of deforestation and forest degradation.
o FIP supports Participatory Sustainable Forest
Management (PSFM) and piloting Forest
Landscape Management (FLM), collecting data,
building technical capacity and raising public
awareness on the importance and potential
benefits of REDD+.

4. The project development objective is to execute REDD+ activities through participatory sustainable forest management in priority
areas and to pilot forest landscape management in four provinces.
SUFORD-SU targets 2,925,000 ha to come under management plans supported by the project.
In 2017 alone, over 2,600,000 ha were achieved, bringing the cumulative total to 3,626,699 ha covered by
management plans.
FIP SUFORD-SU has promoted a variety of livelihoods activities, including agriculture, livestock and small
village grants managed through Village Livelihood Development Committees. More than 21,000 village-
level projects have been launched.

5.  The FIP SUFORD-SU project has substantially contributed to on-the-ground
implementation of the Prime Minister Office Decree 15/2016 (PMO15), an export
ban on unprocessed timber. Combined with effective forest law enforcement
supported by the FIP SUFORD-SU project, illegal logging declined by 75 %.
Nonetheless, the expansion of commercial land-based activities and rural
poverty still put pressure on the country’s natural resource base and pose
serious threats to its preservation.
 FIP has helped to strengthen high-level government commitments to forest
protection. Forest policy reforms, and cross-departmental work are also in
evidence.
 In the Production Forest Areas supported by FIP SUFORD-SU, the rate of
deforestation declined by about 40 %.
 FIP has been instrumental in boosting both awareness of and capacity to
implement safeguards. In a recent survey, 97 % of the stakeholders expressed
satisfaction with the implementation of FIP SUFORD-SU’s community
engagement framework.

6. To this end, the Government has demonstrated interest to continue working on
leveraging different stakeholders’ financial and technical capacities towards a more
holistic, landscape-centered development strategy to meet its national and
international commitments.

7. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION