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Silent transitions: Commercialization and changing customary land tenure systems in upland Laos

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  • Suhardiman, Diana
  • Phayouphorn, Anna-Maria
  • Gueguen, Anthony
  • Rigg, Jonathan

Abstract

What happens to local institutional arrangements regarding access and use of communal land under the forces of agricultural commercialization? Taking Khwaykham village in Phongsaly province, Laos as a case study, this paper sheds light on this question as farm households in the settlement have progressively transitioned to commercial farming, specifically tea cultivation. Traditionally, farm households’ access and rights to use the land were embedded in their swidden agriculture practices. The adoption of tea has increasingly fixed land use rights, making land sticky at the household rather than communal level. How, why and with what effects this occurs are the focus of the paper. We argue that while this transition to tea cultivation has benefited – in income terms – most farm households in the village, it has also created an agrarian context for increased inequity between those households who rapidly took the opportunity from the tea boom and others who have missed out on it.

Suggested Citation

  • Suhardiman, Diana & Phayouphorn, Anna-Maria & Gueguen, Anthony & Rigg, Jonathan, 2023. "Silent transitions: Commercialization and changing customary land tenure systems in upland Laos," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:126:y:2023:i:c:s0264837723000078
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106541
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Klara Claessens & Aymar Nyenyezi Bisoka & An Ansoms, 2021. "Rethinking Communal Land Governance in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 21(2), pages 144-160, April.
    2. Suhardiman, Diana & Scurrah, Natalia, 2021. "Institutional bricolage and the (Re)shaping of communal land tenure arrangements: Two contrasting cases in upland and lowland Northeastern Laos," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
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    4. Ian G. Baird & Pao Vue, 2017. "The Ties that Bind: The Role of Hmong Social Networks in Developing Small-scale Rubber Cultivation in Laos," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 136-154, January.
    5. Jonathan Newby & Rob Cramb & Somphanh Sakanphet, 2014. "Forest Transitions and Rural Livelihoods: Multiple Pathways of Smallholder Teak Expansion in Northern Laos," Land, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Tania Murray Li, 2002. "Local Histories, Global Markets: Cocoa and Class in Upland Sulawesi," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 415-437, June.
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