„Land grabbing“. Beyond anecdotal evidence on multiple claims on land in Lao PDR: Towards a spatial understanding of trade-offs in sustainable development

Abstract: The Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is situated in the heart of the economically very dynamic region of mainland Southeast Asia. Related to ist rich natural resource endowment and a change of course of the ruling communist party towards economic opening, Laos has emerged as a supplier of raw agricultural commodities, tree crops, minerals, as well as hydropower for the rest of the world. Thereby its large neighbouring economies of China, Thailand and Vietnam are the main driving forces of a drastic increase in the demand on land and augmented pressure on the natural resource. Within currently on-going work we are combining elaborated different sources of information to get a more complete picture of the different claims of land in Laos and possible trade-offs in terms of services of land and development in general.

IFF Wien, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070 Wien

9. November 2015, 6.00 p.m.