Debate on Forest Law

At the fist day of the fourth ordinary session of the National Assembly (NA) (sixth legislature) NA members debate some articles of the Forest Law, which was adopted by the NA (fifth legislature) in 1996. It consists of seven Parts and 75 Articles. The new amended Law on Forest would have 13 Parts and 128 Articles.

            During the debate, NA members share their opinions and experiences with the aim of making this law more concise and protecting the forest resources. Some NA members discuss how to determine the protection of forests with the aim of protecting forests, water resources and forest products from natural and human destruction. They request to change some expressions. For instance, “to protect forests in sources of rivers” should be replaced by “to protect forests along rovers.” More debates are on forest extraction units and some NA members propose that    the forest extraction units should be state-own. If they are private-run, it will be hard for the Government to monitor and inspect logging in the country.

            The debate is on forest categories: protection forests, conservation forests and production forests, which include rehabilitated forests, degraded forests and forests used by villagers.  

            Before the debate in the session, Article 42, 44, 51, 68, 70 and 125 and new Article 69 were sent to NA members and they were revised and improved.

            Since its adoption, the Forest Law has been implemented, however, there are some weak points, difficulties and loopholes have occurred and hindered the socio-economic development. Illegal logging and forest destruction are the main concern so the relevant organisations proposed the National Assembly to consider and adopt amendment to the Forest Law with the aim of preserving forest natural resources. In 2002-2003, Lao PDR has 9.8 million hectares of forests covering 41.5 percent of the country territory. 1.4 million hectares of forests decreased compared to the past 10 years. In 1992, Lao PDR had 11.2 million hectares of forests (47.1 percent of the country’s territory).

            The reasons of forest decrease are slash and burn cultivation, illegal logging and so on. Another reason is that the Forest Law is not relevant to Law on Processing Industry, Land Law, Law on the Environment and Law on Investment Promotion.

            In order to make the Forest Law more effective, the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry, the Industry and Commerce Industry, the National Land Development and Planning Authority and the Water Resources and Environment Authority formulated the draft amendment to the Forest Law, which is on the debate in the NA session.