LAOS
Subsidies to a struggling plantation industry
by Chris Lang

back to "the Pulp Invasion"

Contents:

• Overview of the situation today
• International support to the industry
  • Asian Development Bank
  • JICA – Forest Conservation and Afforestation Project
  • Sida – Lao-Swedish Forestry Programme
• Companies
  • BGA Lao Plantation Forestry
  • Asia Tech
  • Burapha
  • Brierley

• References

This report gives an overview of the situation in Laos, starting with an overview of the situation today, followed by a look at some of the international support to the industry, including the Asian Development Bank's role in promoting plantation development in Laos. The final section profiles some of the companies that are active in the plantation sector. 

Laos has a very low per capita consumption of paper and board products, reported to be 0.6 kilogrammes (kg) in 1998 (PPI 1999). Compared to Thailand, there is a much smaller area of fast-growing tree plantations. However, in recent years there has been a significant amount of interest, particularly from Thai companies, in expanding the area of tree plantations in Laos to serve the pulp and paper industry.

Laos' only paper mill, the Asia Paper Factory is 10 kilometres outside Vientiane. Water from the mill is channeled to nearby rice paddies. In February 2001, the Lao news paper Patheth Lao reported that local residents had complained about the factory emitting dirty water and a strong smell. Bounmy Somnsad, a consultant from the factory dismissed local people's concerns and said, "The water doesn't contain any chemicals, only flour and lime, which is good for rice production, it does not effect the health of residents" (KPL 2001b).

In the mid-1990s there were several reports that Laos was planning to build its first large-scale pulp mill. For example, in October 1996, Pulp and Paper International Magazine reported that Vientiane Pattana Agro Industry planned to build a 100,000 tons a year pulp mill. The company was a joint venture between the Lao government and a Thai company (PPI 1996). Phoenix Pulp and Paper Mill in Khon Kaen in Thailand has planned bamboo and eucalyptus plantations, a wood chipping mill, a 20,000 tons a year paper mill, a 600,000 tons a year pulp mill, a 55-room hotel and a tourist resort. The then-majority owners of Phoenix, European Overseas Development Corporation set up four companies all supervised by EODC's offices in Laos with the aim of expanding their operations to Laos (Watershed 1998b: 56-57). None of these plans have come to anything, partly because of the Asian economic crisis in 1997. (See report on Thailand – EODC.)

According to the FAO, the first eucalyptus and other fast-growing tree species in Laos were planted in the early 1960s. A survey carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in 1993 states that 1,900 hectares of plantations were established before 1976. By 1993 almost 10,000 hectares of plantations had been planted, although the Ministry estimated the survival rate to be as little as 46 per cent (FAO www 2).

The statistics for plantation area in Laos are inconsistent, and the exact area of plantations is difficult to establish. For example, in 2000, the FAO estimated that there was a total of 53,900 hectares of plantations in Laos. This total included 8,100 hectares of eucalyptus plantations, 5,400 hectares of acacia and 13,500 hectares of teak (FAO www 2). The Asian Development Bank, however, estimated in 1998 that 33,800 hectares of plantations had been established since 1975. The ADB's consultants point out that survival rate is low, and they estimate the actual plantation area to be between 12,000 and 15,000 hectares (Thongleua and Castren 1998).

There have been few (if any) open protests by farmers and villagers in Laos for two main reasons. First, the development of large-scale industrial plantations is still in its infancy and the impacts are therefore so far local and, compared to Thailand, still quite small. Second, Laos is a one-party state, and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party does not tolerate dissent. Amnesty International's 2001 report on Laos states, "Freedom of expression, association and religion continued to be severely restricted" (AI 2001). There is no free press in Laos, there is no right to change the government, no right to freedom of speech, religion or movement. Under these circumstances, protest is far more difficult than in Thailand. However, villagers have complained to local officials about the impact of plantations and in Champasak province villagers have erected signs indicating communal grazing land and forest in defiance of the company attempting to enclose the land as tree plantations.

Support for the development of fast-growing tree plantations in Laos comes from a series of sources. For example, Gary Oughton of the Vientiane-based consulting firm Ecolaos stated in November 2000, "We need to get trees back into this region of Southeast Asia, by any means possible." His consulting firm was involved in the Resettlement Action Plan for the proposed Nam Theun 2 hydropower dam. When asked about the problems of livelihoods being destroyed by the project, he recommended "joint forest management between villagers and a high tech company like Poyry." Inevitably, this would include industrial plantations.

Laos is heavily dependent on foreign investment and aid. Around 80 per cent of all "development" projects are paid for from overseas (Brandmaier 2001). Since 1988, 37 countries have invested more than US$5.7 billion in over 840 projects in Laos. Thailand has invested more than any other country, with around US$2.9 billion in 262 projects. The US ranks second with US$1.4 billion invested and South Korea third with US$636 million (KPL 2000).

There has been a series of overseas projects aimed at promoting plantation development in Laos. In 1967, Australia and Laos started discussion on the Lao-Australian Reforestation Project (Bounphom 1993: 6). According to a report produced for the Asian Development Bank, most of the tree planting carried out under the Lao-Australian Reforestation Project "failed bacause [sic] of a combination of one or more factors such as poor maintenance, cattle or fire damage" (Saravanamuttu Muttiah no date: 7).

The Asian Development Bank has funded projects in the forestry sector in Laos since 1978. The focus was on industrial forestry and the first loan of US$8 million went on modernising a plywood mill and on associated forestry operations (ADB 1989).

An ADB-funded "Forestry Development Project" started in 1979. One of the consultants on this project, Saravanamuttu Muttiah, reveals the bias towards industrial forestry and species including eucalyptus inherent in many such projects. The project was supposed to include collecting seed from forests. However, the consultant reported that the it was simply too much hard work to get into the forests to collect seed: "Because of various difficulties encountered in getting into remote forest areas for seed collection, the possibility of establishing chiefly clonal seed orchards of premier species was examined but it requires considerable initial research support" (Saravanamuttu Muttiah no date: 5). It is far easier for foresters to spend their time in the laboratory or seedling nursery working with tree species they know about, such as eucalyptus, than to go out in the forest collecting seeds of species about which they know far less than the local communities. Just in case the point was lost on the reader, the consultant added, "Eucalypts have a difinite [sic] place for community forestry in Laos" (Saravanamuttu Muttiah no date: 7).

A Tropical Forestry Action Plan (TFAP) carried out with funding from UNDP, FAO, ADB, World Bank and SIDA (ADB 1989: 4) was approved by the Lao government in December 1993 (Anon 1991: 13). Among the recommendations made under the TFAP was a logging rate of 280,000 cubic metres/year and the introduction of industrial tree plantations (Anon 1992: 3). "Commercially valuable" forest was to be logged – an area of between 750,000 and 1 million hectares according to the TFAP consultants. TFAP's second priority was the introduction of industrial tree plantations on logged over and degraded forest land to feed the pulp and paper industry in Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia (Anon 1992: 6).

In 1992, a Lao-ACIAR project established acacia and eucalyptus trail plantations. The objectives, according to Bounphom Mounda of the Department of Forestry, included setting up trials and seed orchards "of species with most potential for large scale commercial plantations" (Bounphom 1993: 7). The project was titled "Improving and Sustaining Productivity of Eucalyptus in South East Asia" and in Laos it involved the introduction to Laos of fast-growing trees from species and provenance trials in Thailand (Pinyopusarerk and Chandler 1993: 2). The research fits well with the ambitions of Thai companies to expand their operations to Laos.

Soon after the TFAP for Laos was completed, the Asian Development Bank funded a study on establishing plantations of fast-growing trees for production of industrial wood for export, as a response to recommendations in the TFAP, according to Bounphom Mounda of the Department of Forestry (Bounphom 1993: 9).

Since 1994, the ADB has been running its "Industrial Tree Plantation Project" in Laos, covering three provinces and aiming to establish 9,600 hectares of commercial fast-growing tree plantations. The project is described in more detail in the ADB section below.

In 1993, the Department of Forestry was reorganised and a Plantations Division was established. This aimed to "(i) formulate policies and strategies for the development of plantation forestry; (ii) carry out, in cooperation with the Forestry Inventory Division and local authorities, necessary land use surveys and allocate suitable land for plantation purposes; (iii) encourage private investment in tree plantations; (iv) improve technical base and extension services for the development of plantation forestry; and (v) coordinate with the relevant authorities at central and local levels for the development of plantation forestry and establishment of nurseries" (ADB 1994: 1).

In 1993, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) organised a "Regional Expert Consultation on Eucalyptus" in Bangkok. In his presentation, Bounphom Mounda of the Forest Plantation Division at the Department of Forestry explained that forests in Laos could be rehabilitated through natural regeneration or through the establishment of plantations. Plantations, according to Bounphom, are "planned for barren (deforested) land. It is estimated that the country has approximately more than 10 million hectares of this land resulting from shifting cultivation practices" (Bounphom 1993: 5-6).

Bounphom pointed out that "There has been no in-depth study on Eucalyptus effects in the country." Yet he confidently asserted that large scale commercial plantations would create "job opportunities for the rural subsistence population and contribute to the socio-economic development of the country" (Bounphom 1993: 7).

Between December 1993 and June 1996, FAO and Japan's International Cooperation Agency (JICA) funded the FAO Regional Project for Strengthening Re-Afforestation Programmes in Asia (STRAP). The project worked in Bhutan, Burma, Vietnam and Laos (FAO 1995: 5). The project aimed to develop "sound conservation, management and development of man-made forests and trees on a sustainable basis in order to serve the protective functions in terms of desirable goods and service; therefore, to meet human and environmental needs" (Cameron et al 1995: 17).

In 1991, ISO/Swedforest listed 47 projects funded by multilateral and bilateral donors to the forestry and related sectors in Laos. Multilateral donors included: World Bank, ADB, UNDP, FAO, UNESCO, EEC, and the Mekong Committee. Bilateral donors included Australia, USSR, Vietnam, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Japan, UK, Thailand, France and USA. In addition NGOs (Norwegian Church Aid, CIDSE, Save the Children Australia, Bahai International Community, CAA, Quaker Service Laos and JVC) funded 15 projects (ISO/Swedforest 1991: 11-14). In February 1995, the Department of Forestry hosted an aid agency conference which agreed a total aid-budget of US$40 million to the forestry sector over the next three to five years (Cameron et al 1995: 25).

In November 2000, this had all changed. There were only three projects run through the DoF:

• Lao-ADB plantation forestry project;
• Lao-Swedish forestry project;
• Shifting Cultivation Stabilisation project.

Another project, funded by Japan has moved to the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute. (See below.)

One of the reasons for the dramatic reduction in the number of forestry sector projects in Laos seems to be the demise of the GEF, Finnida and World Bank funded Forest Management and Conservation Programme (FOMACOP). The project was initially planned to run for 10-15 years, but the Government of Laos halted the programme after the first five-year phase. The total project budget was US$20.3 million, and the consultants were Jaakko Poyry Consulting, CARE International and Vientiane-based Burapha Consultants.

The project consisted of two components: a "village forestry" component under which villagers would log and earn money from "village forest management areas"; and a biodiversity conservation component.

Given the extent of illegal logging in Laos it is perhaps not surprising that the project ran into trouble [See for example, Anon (2000)]. In February 2000, a World Bank Mission reported that the reforms in Lao government forest policy anticipated under the project had not been implemented: "Accompanying the investment program, the project design anticipated significant reforms in the policy framework. These included preparation of sector legislation, deregulation of market controls on wood to ensure export parity pricing of timber and issuance of implementing regulations, satisfactory to the Bank, for forest management. Compliance with these measures has been slow and partial" (Rajesh 2000).

Before the Fomacop project collapsed, preliminary studies were made into assessing the "village forestry" part of the project according to Forest Stewardship Council standards. Among the rumours regarding the project's sudden end was one that Lao government officials were worried that the bribes they receive from the logging industry would disappear under an externally audited system such as FSC.

Partly as a result of the failure of the Fomacop project, the World Bank, Finnida and Sida carried out a Production Forest Review for Laos, which was completed in 2001.

In December 1993, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed a US$11.2 million loan to the Government of Laos for an Industrial Tree Plantation Project. The project started in July 1994 and the first phase is planned to run until 2003. Under the project 9,600 hectares of commercial fast-growing tree plantations are proposed, 7,000 hectares of which will be established by private companies.

The project covers the provinces Vientiane, Bolikamxai and Savannakhet. Two technical assistance grants were associated with the loan: Institutional Support for Agricultural Promotion Bank (APB) which was completed in January 1997; and Institutional Support for Department of Forestry (DOF) which is due to be completed on 30 September 2001 (ADB no date).

According to the ADB, the project's aims are to

"(i) reestablish tree cover on unstocked and degraded forest land;

(ii) produce wood for fuel, and construction and industrial uses; and

(iii) establish a policy framework for the development of sustainable industrial tree plantations" (ADB no date).

Jaakko Poyry Consulting AB (Sweden) and Burapha Development Consultants (see section on Burapha, below) shared the US$1.5 million contract for consulting services on the project (Development Today 1994: 4).

A 1995 Poyry report produced for the project states that the aim of the project is to "develop a model to implement the policy of growing high yielding tree plantations on unstocked forest land and eroded land by the private sector." The same report defines "unstocked forest" as "previously forested areas in which the crown density has been reduced to less than 20% because of logging or heavy disturbance" and "abandoned 'hai' [swidden fields] and disturbed stands with a crown density of less than 20%" (Jaakko Poyry 1995b: 6).

This definition allows companies to describe villagers' community forests, grazing lands, fallow land, regenerating forest areas and fields as "unstocked forest" which they can then convert to fast-growing tree plantations. In Bolikhamxai province BGA, a company funded by the ADB project, has cleared dense secondary forest and replaced it with monoculture eucalyptus plantations. (See section on BGA, below.)

According to a BGA representative, as well as BGA the following companies have received funding under the ADB project: Long Ngum, Furniture km 5, BGA Luang Kian, Burapha, Hum Pang.

There are various loans involved in the financing of the ADB project, as follows:

• The ADB loan to the Lao government is to be repaid within 40 years. For the first 10 years the loan is interest-free, after which the interest rate is 1 per cent.
• The government in turn loans the money to the Agriculture Promotion Bank, and the Bank repays over a 15 year period. The first six years is interest free, followed by a 2 per cent interest rate.
• The Agriculture Promotion Bank subsequently lends the money to companies or to farmers. Companies have 12 years to repay with 6 years interest-free, followed by a 7 per cent interest rate. Companies must provide 30 per cent of the money required themselves, before the loan will be approved.
• Loans to farmers have to be repaid within eight years. Farmers get no interest-free period. For the first six years they have to pay 60 per cent of 7 per cent annual interest, and in the seventh and eight years the entire loan plus interest must be repaid (Xeme 1995: 79).

Farmers are at the end of the line: they pay more interest, have to repay the loan sooner, and if they are growing trees on their land instead of food crops, are at risk of being significantly worse off as a result of the project.

By September 2000, the ADB claimed that 7,842 hectares of tree plantations had been established. The ADB reports that "Marketing options for plantation wood in Lao PDR include export of wood chip to Japan, and establishment of a large processing factory/pulp mill in Lao PDR" (ADB no date). The wood chip exports to Japan presumably refers to BGA's proposed wood chip mill (see below). There are still no large pulp mills in Laos.

In 1999, an Australian forestry consulting firm, Fortech, produced a report entitled "Current Constraints Affecting State and Private Investments in Industrial Tree Plantations in the Lao PDR", for the ADB and the Lao Government.

The Executive Summary of the report claims that plantation development in Laos "provides opportunities to generate economic growth and development" and argues that "at least one large scale plantation project" should be approved by the end of January 1999. The alternative, according to the consultants, is that "international investors will decide not to proceed in Lao PDR" (Fortech 1999: iv).

The report makes several recommendations that the Lao government should implement in order to subsidise the plantation industry in Laos. Such measures include (among others): rewriting the Plantation Regulations under the Forestry Law; appointing a "plantation investment coordinator"; preparing guidelines for plantation assessment proposals and a step-by-step guide for investors; collecting and publishing market information on domestic and international forest product markets; and building new roads in "key plantation development regions" (Fortech 1999: vii-ix).

Fortech's recommendations, if carried out, would amount to important changes in Laos – changes to forestry laws and changes to people's local environments as commons, swiddens, grazing land and community forests are converted to monoculture plantations. However, the Fortech report is not available to the public. When I wrote to the ADB requesting the report I received the following reply from Snimer Sahni, project officer at the ADB:

"The document you have requested is an official document. Nevertheless, we had sent you a copy of the executive summary. Since you still wanted the full document, we had sought the concurrence of the Lao PDR Government to release this to you. We have not so far received a response from them" (Sahni 2001).

That was six months ago. Since then I have heard nothing more on the subject from the ADB. Ms Sahni also referred me to the ADB's policy on Confidentiality and Disclosure of Information, which is available on the ADB's web-site.

The ADB's policy on Confidentiality and Disclosure of Information took effect on 1 January 1995. According to the Bank, this policy was "prompted by the realization that the Bank should provide the greatest possible degree of transparency and accountability" (ADB www 1). The Bank states that it "emphasizes a presumption in favor of disclosure where disclosure would not materially harm the interests of the Bank, its members, borrowers, and private sector clients" (ADB www 1).

The Bank claims several objectives for the policy, including: encouraging debate; ensuring local participation in decision making; broadening understanding of the Bank's role; facilitating coordination "with others interested in the common goal of development of the region"; and increasing the Bank's accountability (ADB www 1).

Clearly in the case of industrial scale plantations, and the constraints affecting future development of plantations, the ADB is not interested in achieving any of its stated aims regarding local participation in decision making or in encouraging debate.

The Asian Development Bank has played an important role in promoting the reconstruction of roads in Laos. Often these roads needed to be reconstructed because of the damage caused by logging trucks, and the timber and plantation industries are likely to be among the greatest beneficiaries of the new roads, as they can export their goods more easily.

On 26 November 1999, the transport ministers of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam signed an agreement to ease the flow of people and goods between the three countries. The agreement, signed by ministers Suthep Thaugsuban of Thailand, Phao Bounnaphol of Lao PDR and Le Ngoc Hoan of Viet Nam, aims to reduce bureaucracy, and to simplify legislation, regulations and procedures relating to cross-border transport. The ADB helped lay the groundwork for the agreement through a series of studies and workshops. "[T]he framework is essential – it underpins the joint road projects which are either under way or being planned to link the three countries" according to Thomas Jones, a senior project economist with the Asian Development Bank (ADB 1999).

Route 8 is the shortest route from the Lao capital, Vientiane to the sea. Route 8 is a crucial link between Laos and the Vietnamese port Cua Lo for the BGA Plantation project (see BGA section below). The road also runs close to the proposed Nam Theun 2 hydropower dam and recently completed ADB-funded Theun Hinboun dam, thus facilitating construction of these dams (Bangkok Post 25 June 1996). Since 1993, the military-run logging company, BPKP, has accelerated the logging of the Nakai Plateau to clear the reservoir area for the proposed Nam Theun 2 dam. Logs are exported across the Mekong to Thailand and by road to the port of Cua Lo near Vinh in Vietnam, where the timber is exported to Japan, Korea and Hong Kong (Ryder 1996).

The rebuilding of Route 8 was funded with financial assistance from the Japanese government (Lao Embassy 2000).

In March 2001, Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh approved plans for a second bridge over the Mekong River between Thailand and Laos. The US$45 million bridge will link Mukdahan in Thailand with Savannakhet in Laos. The decision to build the bridge was rushed through by the Communications Ministry before a discussion in the Thai Cabinet, which would usually take place before decisions to go ahead with mega-projects. The Japan Bank of International Cooperation's (JBIC) agreement to fund the project expired at the end of the month, and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra implemented measures to allow ministers and committees to approve specific projects (Piyanart 2001).

The following month, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai announced that Vietnam would be invited to discuss a "common master plan" for the bridge. The bridge forms part of the ADB-backed East-West Corridor plan (Associated Press 2001).

The Lao government did not always support the bridge project. In 1999, the Thai newspaper Bangkok Phuchatkan reported that Lao officials did "not seem to be particularly pleased with this project, terming the route as only a facility for transporting transit goods between Thailand and Vietnam while Laos itself will have to shoulder the burden of containing contraband smuggling and the entry of illegal immigrants" (Bangkok Phuchatkan 13 September 1999).

Bounna Hansingsai, head of the trade service of Khammouane Province in Laos said, "Even though this transport route passes through many provinces in Laos, the countries that stand to gain the most from such cooperation are Thailand and Vietnam. . . . Route 8 is a main transport route for transit goods between Thailand and Vietnam" (Bangkok Phuchatkan 13 September 1999).

Eduardo Galeano in his book "The Open Veins of Latin America" describes how the infrastructure of Latin America was built to extract resources from the continent via ports and into the colonial economy (Monbiot 2001). In a strange echo of Galeano, the Laotian transport minister, Pao Bunnapol, told the Bangkok Post that "the bridge would provide a vital economic artery for the region as Laos was improving its highway connecting with the port city in Vietnam" (Bangkok Post 19 March 2001).

The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is funding and carrying out the Forestry Conservation and Afforestation Project (FORCAP) in an area adjacent to the reservoir of the Nam Ngum dam. The dam was funded with a grant from the Japanese government. One of the aims of the project is presumably to attempt to prevent siltation in the reservoir by planting trees. The ADB also has an Integrated River Basin Planning project in the Nam Ngum catchment area.

JICA's project started in July 1996 and the preparation phase lasted until July 1998. Phase 2 started in July 1998 and is anticipated to be finished in July 2003. According to Iwasa Masayuki, Chief Advisor to FORCAP, "In Laos there are no forest management systems. We therefore assist at a local level to develop plans."

The project aims to plant a range of trees, including Acacia mangium, Afzellia xylocarpa and Pterocarpus macrocarpus. Although the plantations are small-scale, the project is looking for markets for the timber for house building or furniture within Laos, or possibly for export to Thailand or Malaysia.

One of the aims of the project is to provide income generating projects for villagers as an alternative to shifting cultivation. One such project involves small-scale village-based paper making from the bark of the branches of the paper mulberry tree (Broussonetia Papyrifera).

The Swedish government has been involved in the forestry sector in Laos since the late 1970s. For the first ten years the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) supported logging operations in Laos, mainly through aid to two state forest enterprises: number 1 in Bolikhamxai and number 3 in Bolikhamxai-Vientiane province. According to Carl Mossberg of SCC Natura, the consultants currently carrying out the Lao-Swedish forestry programme, projects involved "establishment of saw mills, operations of saw mills, together with forestry operations and purchase of equipment, training of people, machine operators, various types of forestry staff and so on, but very much linked to the forestry operations, logging, saw mills" (Mossberg 2000).

In 1989, the ADB stated that SIDA "has been a major source of assistance to the forestry sector . . . with emphasis on forest management and wood harvesting" (ADB 1989: 4).

During the late 1980s the focus of Sida's aid shifted from logging operations to forest inventory, silviculture, natural forest management, plantations and more support to a research station at Nam Souang. The Nam Souang Silviculture Research Centre (NSSRC) was established in 1981 under the supervision of State Forest Enterprise no. 3 (Douangphet 1995: 27).

In 1988-1990, SIDA funded species trials at the Nam Souang Centre during phase two of the Lao-Swedish forest cooperation project. The trials included eucalyptus trees and according to Bounphom Mounda of the Department of Forestry, aimed "to find out the more promising provenances for the industrial tree plantation programme in the future" (Bounphom 1993: 6).

The research centre at Nam Souang covers 600 hectares, and much of its research work with exotic species has focussed on acacia. Even with this small area of land taken up by plantations, the centre ran into conflict with local communities. Douangphet Rattanasouk of the Nam Souang Centre points out that "in the past, NSSRC's area was the main area where the surrounding villagers deliberately delivered their buffaloes and cows and used it for grazing. After establishment of the NSSRC, it was difficult to protect trial plantations from the people and cattle. Especially in the dry season, the fire hazard was quite high and fires damaged saplings and fences" (Douangphet 1995: 29).

SIDA also funded Lao forestry students to study at the Dehra Dun Forestry School, established by the British Colonial regime in India in 1879.

Mossberg explains that during the 1990s, SIDA's involvement in Laos involved, "a continued shift away from forest operations to institution building, to work away from the centre, provinces and districts, to work with more broad issues related to better use of land, sustainable land use and village people and their ways of using land for survival and improved life" (Mossberg 2000).

Part of Sida's most recent work is a joint forest management project, involving villagers in the management of natural forest, and attempting to ensure that villagers receive some of the income generated by logging. This project ran into difficulties, partly because the Lao government was reluctant to allow communities to keep the revenue gained from logging.

Sida planned to complete a review of its work in Laos in 2001. This will take the form of a series of reports, looking at for example participatory land management, gender issues and so on.

When asked whether Sida provides any aid for plantation development, Mossberg replied, "We are not focusing very much on plantations. If so, it is more plantation of trees as part of the environmental protection, for example in sloping lands farming systems with various types of combinations of trees and agricultural crops to prevent soil erosion and keep the fertility of the soil and so on. But no part is really plantations" (Mossberg 2000).

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