Poverty trends in villages affected by land-based investments in rural Laos

Nanhthavong, Vong; Epprecht, Michael; Hett, Cornelia; Zaehringer, Julie G.; Messerli, Peter (2020). Poverty trends in villages affected by land-based investments in rural Laos. Applied geography, 124(102298), p. 102298. Elsevier 10.1016/j.apgeog.2020.102298

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This paper contributes to debates on the implications of land-based investments on local livelihoods in the Global South. Drawing on a comprehensive national dataset on land concessions in Laos, and 2005 and 2015 village- level poverty rates, we examine the association between land-based investments and poverty at the village level in Lao rural areas. Results outline contexts in which land-based investments have either positive or adverse association with village-level poverty change rates; they also reveal factors that determine village-level poverty reduction in Laos. Our results suggest that poverty rates in villages affected by land-based investments decreased significantly between 2005 and 2015, following the national trend in Laos. However, in cases where land-based investments caused more farmland loss, poverty reduction was low or poverty rates increased over this period. Results further reveal that land-based investments implemented in more remote areas or poorer villages had a stronger association with poverty reduction. However, poverty was not a central consideration for the establishment of land-based investments. Our findings fill an important gap, providing a middle-level analysis from which grounded observations are analyzed alongside national trends.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

10 Strategic Research Centers > Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability > Unit Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management (LS-SLM)
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography

Graduate School:

International Graduate School North-South (IGS North-South)

UniBE Contributor:

Nanhthavong, Vong, Epprecht, Michael, Hett, Cornelia, Zähringer, Julie Gwendolin, Messerli, Peter

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
900 History > 910 Geography & travel

ISSN:

0143-6228

Publisher:

Elsevier

Projects:

[420] Managing telecoupled landscapes for the sustainable provision of ecosystem services and poverty alleviation
[803] Cluster: Land Resources

Language:

English

Submitter:

Melchior Peter Nussbaumer

Date Deposited:

02 Feb 2021 16:00

Last Modified:

02 Apr 2024 10:26

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.apgeog.2020.102298

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Land-based investment, Land grabbing, Impacts poverty, Rural livelihoods, Laos

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/151561

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/151561

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