Shifting cultivation (slash-and-burn) is crucial to the survival of the mountain peoples (ethnic minorities) of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, particularly in the north. Recent land legislation has sought to encourage these peoples to settle and take up sedentary farming (notably lowland rice-growing). Land allocation occurs in a very difficult context, marked by poorly controlled migration and the sectoral approaches of administrations and many development projects. In addition, the mountain peoples seek to defend their livelihoods and their access to land by employing an array of strategies that are difficult to reconcile with land tenure and settlement policy: illegal clearing, migratory networks to access land in other areas and informal leasing and sale of land outside the bounds of legality.
