This report presents results of the Lao Census of Agriculture 2010/11. It highlights the major findings of the census, featuring commentary and graphical presentations, as well as some summary tables. Results are shown for each province. The report is available in Lao and English as separate documents.   The Lao Census of Agriculture 2010/11 was the second agricultural census undertaken in Lao PDR; the first was conducted in 1998/99. Since the first census, there have been significant changes in the agricultural sector and these changes needed to be captured in another census.  

Climate change is the greatest challenge facing our generation. It touches all segments of society and it jeopardizes the future prosperity of the global communities, including the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). In Lao PDR, climate change has resulted in higher temperatures, variable rainfall, longer dry seasons and droughts, and more severe and frequent flood and drought. Droughts and flooding harm agriculture, food security, forest and land use, water resources, energy, industries, public work and transportation, urban and public health.

While Laos largely avoided the health impacts of COVID-19, the pandemic’s economic consequences exposed existing vulnerabilities, and left the country at the precipice of fiscal and debt crises. At the 11th national congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP), held in January 2021, the LPRP reinforced key elements of the regime’s high-stakes economic strategy but also hinted that the pandemic had encouraged a shift in economic emphasis. Even before the pandemic hit, Laos’s economic transformation had started to slow in 2019.

The management of land concessions and leases in the agriculture, tree plantation, hydropower and mining subsectors (referred to as land deals henceforth) is a crosscutting topic and involves a wide range of agencies of the Government of the Lao PDR (GoL) at various administrative levels, from the granting stage to the supervision and monitoring of progress and compliance.

The history of land rights in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), hereafter referred to as Laos,  is a history of customary land tenure systems which remain the most prevalent form of land tenure. As social systems, land tenure systems in Laos have been affected by and have adapted to external forces such as neighboring kingdoms, colonialization, geopolitics and war, migration, and global economic trends. Ongoing rapid changes in national socioeconomic conditions and domestic political goals continue to alter the customary tenure landscape.