Land use induced emissions of land acquisitions in Laos

Title Emission effects of land acquisitions in Laos

Data support the findings of the study "Emission effects of land acquisitions in Laos", Ecology and Society Project Hidden Emissions Of Forest Transitions, ERC-2017-StG 757995 HEFT, 2018-2023 PI: Simone Gingrich

Authors Sonja Bauernschuster Melanie Pichler Vong Nanhthavong Rasso Bernhard Michael Epprecht Simone Gingrich

Index

Land Conversion Matrizes

C Stock Change Matrizes

Indicators

Sensitivity Analysis

Contact

Sonja Bauernschuster sonja.bauernschuster@boku.ac.at

Large-scale land acquisitions repeatedly fall short of their acclaimed socio-economic benefits and are associated with unintended social, economic and ecological costs. In Laos, the government starts to question its own “Turning Land Into Capital” policy and reviews land acquisitions or concessions with regard to their socio-economic impacts. Empirical investigations of environmental impacts of land concessions, however, remain underrepresented. This article links the nation-wide concession development between 2001 and 2017 with associated land-use changes and quantifies related land-use change induced emissions. Results show that land acquisitions for agriculture, forestry and mining mainly affect forests and land previously used for shifting cultivation and permanent agriculture, e.g. rice paddies. Consequently, land conversions caused by concessions resulted in net carbon emissions of 4.9 Mt CO₂e yr^-1 on average in 2001-2017, amounting to 34% of total emissions from land conversions. Even tree plantations that are meant to serve as net C sinks, caused net emissions, but data here are least robust. The relatively low C emission intensity of shifting cultivation compared to the high C emission intensity of concessions challenges the dominant narrative of shifting cultivation as a causal factor for forest degradation. Political implications to foster sustainable development include the reduction of land acquisitions because of their emissions intensity, and minimization of emissions and social conflict induced by granted concessions, e.g. by allocating land with low C densities and obtaining consent of local land users.