Historical Changes of Land Tenure and Land Use Rights in a Local Community: A Case Study in Lao PDR

Saykham Boutthavong, Kimihiko Hyakumura, Makoto Ehara and Takahiro Fujiwara
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Saykham Boutthavong: Graduate School of Social and Culture Studies, Kyushu University, 744, Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka City 819-0395, Japan
Kimihiko Hyakumura: Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka City 812-8581, Japan
Makoto Ehara: Center for International Partnerships and Research on Climate Change, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI), 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, Japan
Takahiro Fujiwara: Institute of Decision Science for a Sustainable Society, Kyushu University, 744, Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka City 819-0395, Japan

Land, 2016, vol. 5, issue 2, 1-20

Abstract: Land-titling programs, land and forest allocation programs, and projects on state-allocated land for development and investment in Laos have been key drivers of change in land tenure. These have triggered major shifts in land use rights, from customary, to temporary, and then to permanent land use rights. This article explores how government programs to grant land use rights to individual households have affected the way people have been able to acquire and secure land tenure. For our case study, we selected the village of Napo, the target of many land tenure changes in the past four decades. We collected data from district offices, group discussions with village organizations, and interviews with selected households. The study shows how land use rights shifted over time and reveals that households obtained most of their agricultural land and forestland through a claim process. Original households were mainly land claimers, while migrants were land buyers. The process of formalization and allocation of tenure triggered inequality among households. Attention is needed in future land governance and tenure reforms in order to safeguard the land use rights of local people in an equitable manner.

Keywords: land use rights; land tenure; property rights; land acquisition; household land; land formalization; Laos (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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