Political Ecology of the Agrarian Transition: Case studies in the Uplands of Lao PDR

Abstract

The agrarian transition is one of the most important processes of socioeconomic change that has occurred over the past three centuries. While abundant, the related scientific literature exhibits significant lacunae as regards links between socioeconomic change, ecological dynamics and environmental politics. This study describes how ecological change and mainstream environmental discourses have played a critical and mutually reinforcing role in shaping the agrarian transition in two Laotian villages. In response to land degradation and declining agricultural yields, villagers have engaged in a dual process of livelihood diversification and de‐agrarianisation. Mainstream discourses on land degradation have also constituted an indirect, yet important source for local change. In particular, the idea that Laos’ development is threatened by a ‘chain of degradation’ ‐ stretching from upland poverty, shifting cultivation and deforestation to downstream siltation of wetlands and reservoirs ‐ has had wide‐ranging impacts on rural development policy. Land reform and resettlements have thus aimed at ‘rationalizing’ local access to upland resources, delineating conservation areas and bringing remote populations closer to markets and state services. In the two study villages, they have engendered critical agricultural land shortage and fostered livelihood diversification and de‐agrarianisation. Understanding patterns of agrarian change requires thus paying careful attention to both ecological conditions and environmental knowledge. Ecological change is both cause and consequence of livelihood change while environmental knowledge conditions directly local adaptation to ecological change and, through its impact on policy and regulation, local livelihood constraints and opportunities.