Category: Lao PDR

A great forest falls in Laos

A girl stands beside a log pile on the edge of the Mekong river near the capital Vientienne in Laos. Logs are transported downriver before export.
A girl stands beside a log pile on the banks of the Mekong River in Lao PDR. Used on the cover of a report by non-profit group BankTrack.
A girl stands beside a log pile on the banks of the Mekong River in Lao PDR. Used on the cover of a report by non-profit group BankTrack: Soft Commitments, Hard Lessons: an analysis of the Soft Commodities Compact.

With a relatively small population Laos managed to maintain the integrity of its tropical forests for longer than most of its neighbours. In recent years however illegal logging has continued to accelerate and goes largely unchecked despite a government ban on roundwood logs in 1999.

A shadowy corrupt government allocates few resources to forest protection. Nearly all the timber is exported going to China and Vietnam and volumes have jumped dramatically in recent three years.

Many of the local farmers and indigenous peoples in Laos have been affected by the widespread deforestation which has severely impacted their livelihoods as their community forests have vanished. Although many raw logs are exported, sawmills operate along the border areas too.

Laos borrowed heavily to build hydropower dams to create surplus electricity for export and a highspeed railway line from Thailand to China. The investments have not paid off as hoped leaving this least developed country burdened with debt it can ill afford.

  • Khamu tribal villagers in the Nam Ha National Biodiversity Conservation Area rainforest, Northern Laos.
    laoag11
  • LaoAg21, Rod Harbinson
    Khamu child, Nam Ha, Laos.
  • LaoAg47, Rod Harbinson
    Swidden agriculture meets the rainforest. Khammouan province, Laos.
  • LaoAg70, Rod Harbinson
    laoag70
  • LaoLog08, Rod Harbinson
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  • LaoAg67, Rod Harbinson
    laoag67
  • LaoLog14, Rod Harbinson
    Sawmill, Tha Khaek, Laos.
  • LaoLog05, Rod Harbinson
    laolog05
  • LaoLog01, Rod Harbinson
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Photography gear

Pitcures were shot on Kodak Ektachrome, scanned with a Nikon LS9000 ED, using a Nikon FE2 body with lenses: Nikkor 50mm f1.4 Ais, 28mm f2.8 Ais, and a Nikon, 80-200mm f4 Ais.

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