ADB RETA 5771
Poverty Reduction & Environmental Management in Remote Greater
Mekong Subregion Watersheds Project (Phase I)

RRA REPORT ATTAPEU WATERSHED

ATTAPEU & CHAMPASSACK PROVINCE, LAO PDR

Special Report

By

Latsamay Sylavong

1. General Background

Attapeu watershed is located in the Southern part of Lao PDR. This watershed is covered in 2 provinces as the whole of Attapeu province and a small part of Champassack provinces (the Plateau Boloven). There are about 900 Kilometres from Vientiane Municipality and 180 kilometres from Pakse. Access to those 4 villages differs from one to another village due to the selection criteria for the RRA survey in order to cover the main ethnic minorities in the watershed area. It is found easy access to 2 villages of Champassack province (Boloven Plateau) for both seasons and very difficult to get to other 2 villages of Attapeu province, especially during raining season.

The purpose of this survey is to describe the existing agroecosystems within the watershed area as the relationship to the use of forest resource by human population. In addition, Attapeu watershed is one of the shortlist watersheds priorities in Lao PDR. In the Attapeu watershed 4 villages were studied and detailed information of demographic survey in different ethnic villages as Nha Heune, Alak, Laven and Chung. The number of villages depends on the time available for this survey and the difficulty in access within this area, and the time spending at each village also depends on the size of the village.

All 4 villages were selected by the survey team together with the local authorities of both provinces as Champassack and Attapeu. These 4 villages are located in both provinces, 2 villages in Champassack and 2 villages in Attapeu provinces.

2. Methodology

The main tool for watershed survey is RRA methodology, as the checklist for interviewing both village and household levels were prepared. These checklists had adapted from various surveys from others countries and within country. Observations were also made under different issues to get a complete picture beside the questionnaires.

The composition of the team carry out this survey is as follows:

1. Mr. Gerard Diffloth, ethnolinguistic
2. Ms. Samruan Wonjaroen
3. Ms. Soutsada Chanthasiri, socio-economist.

This survey took 11 days including 2 days trip from Vientiane to Pakse (date: 20-31/12/1998). There are 4 villages selected for this socio-economic survey including visits provincial and district officers of 2 provinces. These visited villages were selected by the survey team and the local authority in order to cover main ethnic minority and activities in the watershed area. Guidelines for doing this survey composes of checklists for interviewing village, household and other stakeholders in the area. The report of ethnolinguistic specialist will be a separate report beside this report.

Beside the primary data gathered by interviewing and observations, there are also secondary data collected during the field and discussions with government officials at all levels and other related stakeholders.

The information of each village was not similar due to the availability of time for this RRA, therefore household interview was carried out only in 2 villages as Houay Jot and Pakpe villages which took 3 days each village.

The watershed profile of Attapeu was summarised by Mrs Latsamay Sylavong (Project Coordinator) from the field survey of 4 visited villages carried out by Ms Soutsada and some available information collected during the field visit.

3. Socio-economic Information

3.1 Background

It is very difficult to summarise the overall description of the whole watershed from 4 visited villages during such a short period of time (only 11 days survey), but this can give the picture of the existing agroecosystem within the watershed area as related to their use by human population.

At each village, the team met all administration at the village level such as the Youth Organisation, the Lao Women’s Union, the Construction Front (Neo Hom, elderly organization), village guards and economists. Most of the information were elicited from all village members who keep all types of village information.

Disparities in wealth can be easily recognised in all visited villages, with the well-off households possessing a large number of livestock, large paddy rice fields of good quality, and comfortable houses; while the poor have almost nothing. The poorer groups also experience shortages of labour, or often their labour is less than optimal due to chronic illness or the death of a spouse. But there are still signs of cooperation within the village during the main activities, such as seeding and harvesting.

3.2 Climate & Water resources

The climate in Attapeu watershed is similar to that of the highland and plateau because this watershed is located in the mountainous agroecological zone, which differ both by the altitude and the population group which inhabit them. The main group of the population living in this watershed area is Lao Theung who inhabit the upland and high plateaus where are often found between 100 and 500 m in altitude.

This watershed is rich in water resources as many streams, lakes and rivers found on watershed areas, and fish are their main protein source for the local villagers in the Attapeu watershed.

3.3 Forest Resources & Inhabitation

Forest vegetation is abundant in the area with various flora and fauna compared to other watersheds in the country. The estimate of forest cover in Attapeu province is about ? percent. Large portion of forest covers are in the northern part of the province as Dong Ampham, Boloven Plateau and Phou Kathong. These 3 mentioned forest area were designated as NBCAs by Lao Government.

Diverse habitats as different of forest types found in the area are lowland evergreen, semi-evergreen, mixed-deciduous, hill evergreen and fagaceous found in the area. Wildlife species including endangered species also found in this area e.g. 84 types of mammals (bats & rodents, cats), over 200 birds species including siamese fireback, crested argus, riverine sps, vultures and hornbills (?,?).

The forest vegetation in the watershed area is essential part to the life of all ethnic minorities living within the watershed area. As you may know already, the local people (all ethnic minorities) brings the location for their village settlement or for their livelihood is the most important as a source of food, shelter and others for their living condition.

3.4 Human Population

The majority of population in the visited villages is the main ethnic minorities living in the area. These people are uplanders who live in this watershed area and practice shifting cultivation as their main activities for their livelihood. The size of visited villages are quite similar, 3 villages with over 100 households to 340 households. The age of each village is old from 170 to 300 years based on the information from local authority.

According to the difficulties in accessibility throughout Attapeu province, the field survey was conducted to only some villages with other observations throughout the watersheds. Four villages were selected for village and households interviews. Village profile is clearly summarised in the appendices. All 4 villages are populated by main ethnic minorities living in the southern part of Lao PDR as Nha Heune, Alak, Laven and Chung.

Table 1: Population in visited villages

3.4.1 Population Related Issues

Health

In general, there is no village dispensary found for the service in the village, villagers usually use the district hospital. There exists a revolving fund established in some visited villages for villagers to use in the emergency (see Table 2). There are at least twice visits from district health service for vaccination children and pregnancy women in the village.

Hygiene and cleanliness for all visited villages are still found low because livestock as their cattle and buffaloes still left under and around their houses and villagers drink unboiled water. Malaria, diarrhoea and goiter are the main diseases for all visited villages. Most villagers drink unboiled water from wells and streams.

Table 2: Access to health service in visited villages

* = sharman

Education

Each village has one primary school, out of the total 4 villages there is 2 primary school with all 5 grades operated in the village. The other 2 villages have only 2 grades and then children have to joint neighboured school for the remained grades.

As seen the number of children attend school was relatively high at the first 2 grades and then dropped about half to be continued to the rest of primary school, and very few children continue the lower secondary school. Lower secondary school only found in one village of Phok village and has very low number of students attend (10 persons) and all are boys. The number of children dropped out from primary school was not collected due to the lack of keeping records at the village level. The reason of leaving school is the requirement of labour for household work or farming, especially for the girls.

There is at least one teacher per class. Most of teachers in both primary and secondary schools are found more men than women due to the opportunities for further study were given to men more than women.

Table 3: Summary of school information in all visited villages

(x) no of pupils/teachers from other nearby school

4. Food Security

Rice sufficiency is the main indication of poverty at both household and village levels. Producing enough rice for the whole years’ consumption is the main responsibility for households to carry, since rice is their staple food. In all parts of the country, other agricultural products are classed as being of secondary importance to their livelihood. Although these products were the main concern for people, their production could not meet their needs.

In general, rice production is the major indicator of the socio-economic status of villages and households. Nearly every village was found to suffer degrees of rice shortage.

Upland villagers faced with rice shortage each year due to the low productivity of upland rice production and labour input on farm to expanse their fields. The rice shortage status is interrelated to the socio-economic stratum given by the village committee. Villagers at most villages faced with rice shortage of over 3 months for the better-off and averaged households and 3 to 6 months for the poor households. Supplementary during the rice deficit is gathering forest products as honey, wild vegetables (Mak Chong and others) and income from selling coffee production and livestock.

Table 5: Rice Deficit for the whole year consumption

5 Livelihoods

Land Use, Tenure & Shifting Cultivation

Current land use for Attapeu watershed or classification categories for this watershed were not yet carried out but there exists for both provinces. The data on land use was also collected at all visited villages (see Table 6). Each village has its own boundary, forest area in the village in which community forest clearly identified for the village use. In most village, old fallow area was also demarcated under village area and belong to villager’s use rights as community, reserve and protected forest area. In all villages, swidden fields are classified under agriculture land.

Although there are differences in the size and type of activities (wet season rice, upland rice, and upland crops) the farmers at all 4 villages are owner (of rights)-farmers. In general, paddy rice fields at all sites are titled to farmers.

For the poor farmers who have not enough rainfed paddy fields have to lease other villagers. Farmers have to pay for the rent and are responsible for the tax payment for that particular plot each year. The majority of farmers who own paddy fields, especially Phok village are better off than in other villages. The reason of not finding rainfed rice fields is due to the high cost of preparing paddy fields in mountainous areas.

Each household has access to land for cultivation, but with the different in quality and size of land rights owned, especially in Nongphanouan where there is high competition in producing different commodities for markets as coffee plantation. Using other upland field plots is often undertaken at all sites but agreement between owners of these fallow rights, farmers, and local authorities is needed before cultivating.

Rural communities have free access to the use of fallows for cultivation. Today, the implementation of local authority (the village committee, district committee and district agricultural staff) means that shifting cultivators who have worked for three years continuously on a particular plots are entitled to the title to that plot. This means that villagers have to shorten their fallow period and the productivity is less than that of the previous rotation based on the information gathered from the survey.

Table 6: Land Use (in hectares) under different categories in all 4 visited villages

5.1 Agriculture Production

Shifting cultivation is the main activity involved by villagers in the visited villages, as seen on Table ? the number of upland rice fields overweight that of rainfed rice fields except for Phok village that has rainfed rice production as their main activity. Besides the rice production of both upland and paddy fields, coffee and cardamon become more interesting by villagers in this watershed.

Table 7: Areas under all agriculture practices (hectares)

Table 8: Production of all agriculture products in all 4 villages ( in tonnes)

5.2 Livestock Production

Livestock is raised traditionally; that is, stock are left to roam freely in the village vicinity during the dry season (after harvesting time) and in the forests around the village for the rainy season. This is because there is no land demarcated for such activity yet in all visited villages. One reason that populations in the remote areas are not really involved in livestock raising is because wild animals are their basic diet and access to these animals is quite easy for them. Raising livestock is a preferred activity for some villagers due to the low time and labour requirements for this activity, but there is large economic investment for such activities.

In general, livestock production can be used to determine the socio-economic status of the village and households. The wealthy households usually possess more large livestock (especially buffaloes as draught animals) while the poor could never own any of these animals. Poor villagers have to hire these animals to prepare their fields; often they cannot afford such input and as a consequence the land has a low output. Similarly, the socio-economic status of the whole village is characterised by the number of wealthy families with high numbers of large livestock, or the number of families with sufficient rice for a whole years’ consumption.

Small livestock, especially pigs and poultry, are quite important in visited villages as compared to other animals. High epidermal infections in small livestock is quite severe at all villages. The actual data of trading livestock both large and small livestock is not available at all visited villages.

Table 9: Livestock holding at visited villages

5.3 Forest Products

The livelihood of rural communities depends on forest products as well as agricultural production. Hunting of wild animals is carried out by all visited villages due to the distance to the deep forests. There exists regulations set by all villagers to control hunting at all villages but implementation in control on hunting is not yet applied properly. One of the reason is the high growth rate of the population in all surrounding villages including the increase in the number of immigration in the surrounding area. All types of tools for hunting are found in all villages such as trapping, night-lighting and hunting with dogs.

Gathering non-timber forest products is important for rural communities for their subsistence. This seasonal activity is carried out according to labour availability and rice sufficiency within each household. Trading of the forest products collected is always undertaken during the dry season due to the accessibility of traders and purchasers into those areas. Mak Chong, cardamon and others are found as main commodities collected by villagers in this watershed area.

The main subsistence for the livelihood of rural communities comes from forests. Wild root tubers and other cereals are the major supplementary foods during rice shortages of more than 6 months for most villages in most villages. Many types of forest products that are also used and consumed in the household are important for their daily life.

Gathering non-timber forest products is carried out by these communities all year round. However, gathering wild plants during the rainy season is more difficult due to accessibility and transportation to markets. Wild plants are considered to be the main dietary item for rural people, and numerous species of wild plants are collected by villagers for their daily meals as mushroom, wild vegetables and roots. The use of wild plant species is quite similar across villages, but with differences in preparation of food and medicines.

6. Problems/Constrainsts

Main problems and constraints found in all visited villages can be summarised as follows:

• Rice shortage found at all visited villages of at least 3 to 6 months for the majority of the population in the watershed area.
• Difficult in access to all villages therefore improving road condition for better access to most villages of the area
• Low productivity of upland rice production by reduce the number of fallow period and limitation of land for production
• Limitation of flat land for expansion of paddy rice fields
• Lack of tools and equipment for field works.
• Lack of fund / access to credit for improving their farm activities.
• Damage from drought and infestation to their agriculture production.
• Difficult in access to the extension services for their assistance in animal diseases .
• Access to hospital for their sickness treatment or no dispensary in the village to cure the minor illnesses.

7. Opportunities/ Idea for future development

Idea for future development in Attapeu watershed can be summarised prior to the needs of local communities based on both interviews and observations as follows:

• Land allocation (clear land tenure)
• Expansion of suitable flat land for paddy field.
• Access to credit/loan
• Revolving fund for rice bank and other agriculture types
• Extension services to provide alternatives to SC (plantation of teak, coffee, cardamon & improving livestock) and ways to protect their agriculture production from the effects of rats and insects.
• Improving access to most villages in the watershed area.
• Infrastructure as school, dispensary and markets