1.2.2 Social-economic and cultural values of biodiversity: The goal of GoL is to graduate from LDC status by the year 2020. During the period of 2011- 2015, the sustainability of development by integrating economic development with socio- cultural development and environmental protection to the nation’s advantage is one of the main objectives of 7th NSEDP (MPI, 2011). Therefore, it can be concluded that environmental management is a key factor for sustainable development in the Lao PDR. To strengthen this point, Laurila-Plant et al.
(2015) supported the theory that one of the aims of environmental management is biodiversity conservation (preventing the loss of biodiversity), being biodiversity globally recognized as a foundation of healthy ecosystems. In the Lao PDR where more than 50% of GDP results from agriculture, forestry, livestock and fisheries, the population has a high economic dependence on biodiversity. Together with rice farming, biological resources underpin the majority of Laotians’ livelihoods − about 80% of the country’s 5.8 million people live in rural areas, and depend largely on harvesting wild plant and animal products for their day-to-day subsistence and income.
In the Lao PDR where the majority of people live in rural areas and rely on natural resources, biodiversity plays a fundamental role in human welfare through the generation of ecosystem services following the stance of the Convention of Biological Diversity, which states: “Healthy ecosystems provide services that are the foundation for human well-being including health. Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems:
provisioning services (also known as goods) such as food and water; regulating services such as food, pest, and disease control; cultural services such as spiritual and recreational benefits; and supporting services, such as nutrient cycling, that maintain the conditions for life on Earth” (CBD, Ecosystem Service for Human Well-Being, 2008, p1). The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) classifies ecosystems services into four categories: provisioning, such as the production of food and water; regulating, such as the control of climate and disease; supporting, such as nutrient cycles and crop pollination; and cultural, such as spiritual and recreation benefit (MA, 2005).
Primary provisioning ecosystem services at the district and provincial levels in the Lao PDR are watershed services (clean and reliable water from forested areas), and biodiversity services and services from forests such as: NTFPs, wildlife, and timber. We depend on ecosystem services for our security and health; they strongly affect our social relations and give us freedom and choice. Especially in Lao context, their relevance and significance vary depending on the actors:
Private sector hydropower companies have a bias towards the regulating and supporting ecosystem services – siltation control, water flows regulation - whereas local communities are primarily and directly concerned with provisioning ecosystem services such as crop production, NTFPs, fisheries, fresh and clean water, raw materials and medicinal plants. 5