Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty and hunger reduction by 2015. The country’s National Socio-Economic Development Plans (NSEDP), moreover, has adapted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and incorporated these into its national priorities and goals. In addition, the most recent 8 th Five-Year NSEDP (2016-2020) aims at graduating the country from its current least developed country (LDC) status. The 8 th NSEDP aims to:
i) graduate from least developed country (LDC) status by 2020; ii) consolidate regional and international integration in the context of the launching of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015; (iii) take further steps towards industrialization and modernization and to enhance the well-being of the people and the prosperity of the country in order to achieve the ranking as a upper-middle-income country by 2030 (MPI, 2015). Although the Lao PDR has strong ambitions for national development by 2020 and has witnessed relative progress, it continues to face a number of key challenges.
These include a need for accelerated poverty reduction; maintaining sustainable economic growth; conservation of natural resources, biodiversity and ecosystems; and social development, including development of human resources, and addressing issues of unexploded ordnance (UXO). It also faces challenges in fulfilling its commitments to international conventions that it has ratified (MoNRE, 2012). 1.2 I MPORTANCE OF BIODIVERSITY IN L AO PDR 1.2.1 Biodiversity context in Lao PDR:
The Lao PDR lies at the center of the Indomalayan biogeographical zone and as a result of its relatively wide ranges of latitude and altitude, as well as its rich water resources and tropical climate, it is home to a large number of species of plants, animals, fungi and other organisms. The country covers parts of four of the WWF’s 200 Global Ecoregions 1, and there are 27 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) which are distributed over the country with a total area of 23,850 km2. Of the 27 IBAs, eight are located fully outside the protected area system. The Lao PDR is one of the most biodiversity rich counties in Southeast Asia, with on-going discovery of new species.
The great diversity of wildlife exists thanks to the Lao PDR’s abundance of forest and water resources, which cover the entire length of the country. The forests and watersheds are important habitats for all species of wildlife and aquatic animals. These habitats are home to many rare and endangered species, some of which are extinct in some parts of the world but are still found in the Lao PDR, such as: Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ), tiger ( Panthera tigris ), clouded leopard ( Pardofelis nebulosa ), leopard ( Panthera 1 Annamite Rang Moist Forest; Indochina Dry Forest; Northern Indochina Sub-tropical Moist Forest; Mekong River and its catchment. 3