Experiences from developing an integrated land-use planning approach for protected areas in the Lao PDR

While early efforts to establish protected areas often excluded local people, modern approaches in many countries now seek to involve local communities in ways that are appropriate to the objectives for the protected area. In the Lao Peopleʹs Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), a protected area management system was established in 1993. In many cases, the new protected areas had land-use conflicts with inhabitants who depended on the areas for their living. This study was undertaken in a protected area in the northwest of the Lao PDR. The primary objective was to identify and gain experiences from a feasible approach for improvement and implementation of protected area management with a positive interaction between people and the natural environment. An integrated land-use planning approach was adopted. It included participatory methods for data capture and analysis, including the use of a simple simulation model, the ‘Area Production Model’ (APM) aiming at evaluating different options for land use and primary production. The outcome of the study was positive in the sense that this integrated land-use planning approach was found to be well adapted to the needs of the protected area management system.