The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) handed over
US$6.3 million in support of the Lao government’s Agro-Biodiversity Initiative
(TABI) in Vientiane on Friday.
The SDC has increased its efforts
to enhance the livelihood and security of upland farming communities by
nurturing the productive use of natural products and the conservation of
agro-biodiversity resources.
It’s the second phase of the
initiative, and the money will go towards work in the two northern upland
provinces of Luang Prabang and Xieng Khuang.
Switzerland has been a long-term
partner of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, SDC Regional Director for
the Mekong Region, Ms Ruth Huber, said.
SDC has been working in
partnership with the ministry since the early 1990s, supporting a number of
important initiatives aimed at improving rural livelihoods and food security,
while at the same time conserving natural resources in Laos.
SDC’s activities have always
focused on the northern uplands – one of the nation’s poorest regions – and
which is now facing unprecedented rapid economic, social, and ecological
change.
Ms Huber expressed her support
for responsible choices that ensure environmental and ecological foundations
are not compromised. “While change itself is inevitable, it is everyone’s
responsibility to ensure that the change is one for development that benefits
people and leads to an improvement of the locals’ livelihoods.”
Laos is ecologically rich with an
abundance of natural resources, but due to population growth, land use changes,
government sanctioned land allocation and village consolidation policies, this
biodiversity has eroded over the past 10 years. Impoverished upland farming
communities have not been beneficiaries of the influx of commercial resource
extraction and large scale commercial agriculture projects. Instead, they face
limited access to non-timber forest products, soil degradation, and
increasingly scarce water and land.
These threats to agriculture and
food security have adverse effects on the population’s livelihoods, in an area
where more than 80 percent of the country’s inhabitants live in rural areas and
depend mainly on wild plants, forest products and domesticated crops.
Laos is a signatory to the
International Convention on Biological Diversity. The government has developed
a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan to meet its obligations under
the convention.
The TABI project contributes to
the Lao government’s efforts to apply the Convention and promote
agro-biodiversity overall.
TABI is building on the past
successes of phase one. In Luang Prabang and Xieng Khuang provinces, project
activities have benefited more than 8,000 families that have participated in
agro-biodiversity based income and livelihood opportunities developed in 160
villages.
The project installed bio-gas
facilities in 20 villages. Land use planning has engaged more than 3,180
households in 34 villages to join in Forest and Land Use Planning activities,
covering 220,000 hectares of land.
This has created the groundwork
for improved land and forest use and management, for solving land use
conflicts, as well as for safeguarding communities against inappropriate land
concessions.
Agriculture and Forestry Deputy
Minister, Dr Phouangparisak Pravongviengkham, said TABI is very important for
Laos because it’s assisting the improvement of community livelihoods in upland
areas – and making significant inroads for reducing poverty in the country.
The Swiss Agency for Development
and Cooperation is Switzerland’s public agency for social and economic
development in developing nations. SDC manages and implements Swiss funding in
response to the needs of the rural poor and contributes to the country’s
efforts to graduate from the UN’s least developed country list by 2020.
Khonesavanh Latsaphao
Source: Vientiane Times
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