Agriculture expansion: As demands on agricultural products increase more and more, land is brought under cultivation for which forests are cleared and grass-lands ploughed. Chemical products are increasingly used and during the process of clearing the land, wood is simply burned. Between 2002 and 2009, the rate of forest land conversion attributed to agricultural expansion increased, for both large concession areas and small investments. Recently, the rapid emergence of concession-based commercial contract farming has been identified as one of the key drivers to deforestation. The main commodities of interest in the Lao PDR include maize, coffee, soybeans and cassava (MoNRE, 2012).
A study of Moore et al. (2011) found that the transition to commercial agriculture, such as maize and Job’s tears ( Coix lacryma-jobi ) has had noticeable effect on land-use, with an increase in monoculture. The same study also found that cash crops, in particular maize, are more demanding on the soil's nutrients and cause greater soil erosion than upland rice. In recent years, the GoL has introduced a number of policy instruments and incentives to boost forest cover by promoting the development of forest plantations throughout the country. For example, one of the main forest policies is to restore forest cover to 70% by the year 2020 (MAF, 2005).
As a result, the area of plantations, especially rubber plantations, has increased significantly from just less than 1,000 ha in 1990 to over 200,000 ha in 2007. However, tree plantations are likely to be a small part (perhaps 500,000 hectares) of the overall forest restoration plan of 7 million hectares. Most of these plantations are expected to provide social and environmental benefits to local communities and their economies (Phimmavong, et al., 2009). It is believed that the establishment of plantations on degraded forest and agricultural land generates a negative impact, not only for local communities and their livelihoods, but also for wildlife species. Infrastructure expansion:
Hydropower and mining: are very dynamic sectors in the Lao PDR and have the potential to make a great contribution to economic development and poverty alleviation. The Lao power sector is under the process of development. In particular, the hydropower sector has the potential to play a key role in achieving the social and economic development objectives of the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) by expanding the availability of low cost, reliable electricity within the country and earning revenue from export sales to the region (MEM, 2015). The mining sector is also one of the biggest contributors to national revenue in the Lao PDR.
It is one of the four priority sectors (the other being energy, agriculture and tourism) for investment and industrialization. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from 1989- 2014 in the mining sector accounted for 24% (MPI, 2015) of overall investment in the industry. Both hydropower and mining have serious environmental implications if they are not effectively addressed accordingly to their Social and Environment Management Plan, which effect not only 17