Industrial timber plantations and their processing have been promoted by the Lao People's Democra... more Industrial timber plantations and their processing have been promoted by the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) government to generate rural employment and reduce economic reliance on the agriculture sector. Using a comparative case-study approach at two wood-processing factories, this paper seeks to understand the existing roles of women in wood processing and how they compare with men in terms of employment, compensation and developmental opportunities, as well as the broader socioeconomic factors that enable their employment. Findings show that women were well-represented in the workforce in both cases because management valued purported gendered attributes such as patience [ot-thon] and attention to detail [la-iat]. Demand for employment by rural women of all ages reflects the broader forces of agrarian transition in Lao PDR, including the desire for regular off-farm income to meet the expectations of a contemporary lifestyle. Gender balance in the factory workplace was found to be enhanced by mechanisation, which increased the roles under which women may be employed, and by access to certified markets by companies, which required adherence to international labour standards, including conditions such as maternity leave and carer's leave. The prominent role of women in wood processing in Lao PDR contrasts with that in Australia because extended families can provide unpaid childcare and other domestic support to working families that ameliorates inflexible work practices, which exist in both countries.
The social impacts of industrial wood plantations (IWP) in Southeast Asia are extensively contest... more The social impacts of industrial wood plantations (IWP) in Southeast Asia are extensively contested. Whilst productive, well-managed IWPs can offer a range of benefits to broader societies, they have also been criticised as driving community displacement and economic marginalisation. There is benefit to comparative case studies that identify the conditions whereby IWPs can support improved rural well-being. This paper assesses changes in resource tenure and livelihoods following plantation establishment in three selected case communities in southern Laos, using a rural appraisal approach. The study finds that IWPs can contribute positively to local livelihoods in Laos, under conditions. These occur when sufficient land is reserved for diversified land uses; local people secure plantation employment; there is adequate compensation for formal and informal land claims; and there are tangible contributions to village infrastructure and development. The availability plantation wage labour alone was found to be inadequate for driving broad livelihood improvement. Fieldwork identified the lingering negative social impacts of uncompensated land dispossession. Assessments of realised community benefits of plantation schemes should be considered in relation to the increasing underlying value of forest-lands in Laos. The paper provides updated policy options for an improved balance between stakeholder interests in Laos' strategic plantation sector.
In our article, 'Rupture: Towards a Critical, Emplaced, and Experiential View of Nature-Society C... more In our article, 'Rupture: Towards a Critical, Emplaced, and Experiential View of Nature-Society Crisis,' we advocated for contextually rich and critical understandings of environmental crises and their catalytic effects. This authors' reply responds to four commentaries whose authors raise helpful questions and insights. We first review the spatial and temporal connections between specific rupture episodes and ongoing processes of extraction and exploitation. We then discuss how the impacts of rupture disproportionately fall to those with the smallest contribution to the crisis. Third, we clarify how our contextually rich view of rupture differs from planetary analytics such as the Anthropocene. In terms of rupture's effects, we agree with comments that rupture does not simply represent a politics of hope but can strengthen authoritarian interests. Finally, we clarify what it means to 'put rupture to work.'
We are currently seeing a global escalation in social and environmental disruption, yet concepts ... more We are currently seeing a global escalation in social and environmental disruption, yet concepts like the Anthropocene do not fully capture the intensity and generative scope of this crisis. 'Rupture' is being used as a term for specific and intense episodes of change, such as wildfires or toxic pollution releases. This is a useful addition to our lexicon for nature-society change but needs to be more robustly theorized. Defining rupture as an intense and adverse episode of nature-society disruption that ripples across scales, we elaborate four dimensions that account for rupture's sources and uncertain effects. The first two dimensions consider how rupture emerges in space and time from: (i) synergistic spatial, material, and socio-natural changes across scales; and (ii) the accumulation of slow violence that builds towards and is exposed by punctuated shifts and crisis moments. The second two dimensions consider the outcomes of rupture, namely: (iii) heightened uncertainty, insecurity, and socio-material deprivation, which are experienced in unequal and deeply affective ways; and (iv) the scope to catalyze diverse forms of agency that play out in uncertain ways. To illustrate our discussion, we draw from our long history of research on hydropower landscapes in the Mekong region.
This article develops a framework for conceptualising authoritarian governance and rule in the La... more This article develops a framework for conceptualising authoritarian governance and rule in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. After introducing the national and academic context, which go a significant way towards understanding the paucity of comparative political work on Laos, we propose an approach to studying post-socialist authoritarian and single-party rule that highlights the key political-institutional, cultural-historical and spatial-environmental sources of party-state power and authority. In adopting this approach, we seek to redirect attention to the centralising structures of rule under the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, illustrating how authoritarian institutions of the “party-state” operate in and through multiple scales, from the central to the local level. At a time when the country is garnering greater attention than at any time since the Vietnam War, we argue that this examination of critical transitions in Laos under conditions of resource-intensive development, intensifying regional and global integration, and durable one-party authoritarian rule, establishes a framework for future research on the party-state system in Laos, and for understanding and contextualising the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party regime in regional comparative perspective.
Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), 2021
The politics of the green economy in provincial Indonesia Insights from coal and oil palm sector ... more The politics of the green economy in provincial Indonesia Insights from coal and oil palm sector reforms in East Kalimantan Key messages • East Kalimantan province (Kaltim) has adopted and developed a long-term phased 'green' economic reform strategy that includes goals to limit coal production and increase agricultural productivity, particularly in the oil palm sector.
Abstract While scholars and policy makers have increasingly focused on transnational labour migra... more Abstract While scholars and policy makers have increasingly focused on transnational labour migration (TLM) in Asia, few comparative studies have analysed how TLM shapes poverty, livelihoods, vulnerability, and agrarian-forest change across different rural contexts. Based on focused comparative fieldwork and a critical review of the secondary literature, this paper identifies the salient patterns of TLM-led change affecting rural livelihoods and agrarian-forest landscapes in three migrant-sending Asian countries: Nepal, Indonesia and Laos. Depending on how social relations, including those based on gender and ethnicity, and how specific geographic places are integrated into migration pathways, TLM can result in patterns of changes involving agricultural deactivation and de-agrarianisation, as well as incipient re-agrarianisation. We also find that where remittances are integrated with diversified livelihood portfolios, and where state policies play a supportive role, transnational labour migration may improve household livelihoods. In the absence of these factors, the transformative potential of TLM can be overestimated, and TLM may end up reproducing underlying structural drivers of rural poverty and vulnerability. We, therefore, challenge the simplistic narrative that TLM provides an easy solution to the limitations of rural development in agrarian Asia. We suggest policy innovations that ameliorate critical issues of migrant vulnerability and precarity, and that support the mobilisation of labour remittances for agricultural development and livelihood diversification.
Environmental and social impact assessment is now a widely accepted tool in the
Mekong Region for... more Environmental and social impact assessment is now a widely accepted tool in the Mekong Region for assessing the impacts of hydropower dams and large-scale industrial tree plantations. However, the cross-sectoral and cumulative effects of such projects have not been sufficiently addressed. Where cumulative impacts have been considered, studies have focused on a single sector, such as multiple hydropower dams. A separation between land and water management frequently leads those assessing project impacts to overlook or underestimate project outcomes. Here we examine such interactions between industrial plantations and hydropower projects, demonstrating that it is the diverse livelihoods of local people – based on everyday use of multiple resources – that crucially connects aquatic and terrestrial environments. The combined social and environmental changes wrought by resource projects can thus produce particular challenges for these communities, as multiple systems are enclosed and degraded. We present case studies of social and environmental impacts occurring in the Mekong Region: in the Hinboun River Basin in Central Laos; the Xe Bang Fai River Basin, also in Central Laos; and the Sesan River Basin in northeastern Cambodia. We strive to demonstrate the practical usefulness of adopting political ecology frameworks for thinking about these crucial agrarian changes.
Agroforestry has been promoted as a promising model of rural development in Lao PDR (Laos), where... more Agroforestry has been promoted as a promising model of rural development in Lao PDR (Laos), where much upland land use is in transition. Relatively little is known about the contributions of agroforestry systems to Lao farmers' livelihoods, how these systems compare to alternatives, or the extent to which they might contribute to the national policy objective of replacing swidden agriculture. The consequences of customary land tenure for such transitions in Laos are also poorly understood. We investigated independent adoption by farmers in a Central Lao village of an agroforestry system that combines 'yang bong' (Persea kurzii) trees on 7-year rotations with intercrops of rice and bananas. The returns to land from this agroforestry system were more financially rewarding for farming households than swidden cultivation, demonstrating that farmers can develop land use intensification pathways that replace swidden cultivation. However, case study farmers anticipated further expansion of banana monocrops rather of agroforestry systems. In addition, the adoption of the agroforestry system has fostered wealth differentiation in the case study village, reflecting both prior and emerging inequities in the customary land tenure system. Our results indicate that it is important to closely understand the institutional and livelihood contexts of agroforestry systems, to better appreciate their role and potential in supporting sustainable land use transitions. In this case study, the intersection of customary land use practices, national policy goals and land allocation policies, new market opportunities, and farmers' dynamic livelihood strategies, both define and constrain the contribution of agroforestry to land use transitions. Response to Reviewers: We would like to thank the Associate Editor for two constructive suggestions on how to improve the manuscript. The text below presents our responses to the minor revisions. 1) Accepted. Our methods section now describes methods using original text where the reader is referred to a citation.
Industrial timber plantations and their processing have been promoted by the Lao People's Democra... more Industrial timber plantations and their processing have been promoted by the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) government to generate rural employment and reduce economic reliance on the agriculture sector. Using a comparative case-study approach at two wood-processing factories, this paper seeks to understand the existing roles of women in wood processing and how they compare with men in terms of employment, compensation and developmental opportunities, as well as the broader socioeconomic factors that enable their employment. Findings show that women were well-represented in the workforce in both cases because management valued purported gendered attributes such as patience [ot-thon] and attention to detail [la-iat]. Demand for employment by rural women of all ages reflects the broader forces of agrarian transition in Lao PDR, including the desire for regular off-farm income to meet the expectations of a contemporary lifestyle. Gender balance in the factory workplace was found to be enhanced by mechanisation, which increased the roles under which women may be employed, and by access to certified markets by companies, which required adherence to international labour standards, including conditions such as maternity leave and carer's leave. The prominent role of women in wood processing in Lao PDR contrasts with that in Australia because extended families can provide unpaid childcare and other domestic support to working families that ameliorates inflexible work practices, which exist in both countries.
The social impacts of industrial wood plantations (IWP) in Southeast Asia are extensively contest... more The social impacts of industrial wood plantations (IWP) in Southeast Asia are extensively contested. Whilst productive, well-managed IWPs can offer a range of benefits to broader societies, they have also been criticised as driving community displacement and economic marginalisation. There is benefit to comparative case studies that identify the conditions whereby IWPs can support improved rural well-being. This paper assesses changes in resource tenure and livelihoods following plantation establishment in three selected case communities in southern Laos, using a rural appraisal approach. The study finds that IWPs can contribute positively to local livelihoods in Laos, under conditions. These occur when sufficient land is reserved for diversified land uses; local people secure plantation employment; there is adequate compensation for formal and informal land claims; and there are tangible contributions to village infrastructure and development. The availability plantation wage labour alone was found to be inadequate for driving broad livelihood improvement. Fieldwork identified the lingering negative social impacts of uncompensated land dispossession. Assessments of realised community benefits of plantation schemes should be considered in relation to the increasing underlying value of forest-lands in Laos. The paper provides updated policy options for an improved balance between stakeholder interests in Laos' strategic plantation sector.
In our article, 'Rupture: Towards a Critical, Emplaced, and Experiential View of Nature-Society C... more In our article, 'Rupture: Towards a Critical, Emplaced, and Experiential View of Nature-Society Crisis,' we advocated for contextually rich and critical understandings of environmental crises and their catalytic effects. This authors' reply responds to four commentaries whose authors raise helpful questions and insights. We first review the spatial and temporal connections between specific rupture episodes and ongoing processes of extraction and exploitation. We then discuss how the impacts of rupture disproportionately fall to those with the smallest contribution to the crisis. Third, we clarify how our contextually rich view of rupture differs from planetary analytics such as the Anthropocene. In terms of rupture's effects, we agree with comments that rupture does not simply represent a politics of hope but can strengthen authoritarian interests. Finally, we clarify what it means to 'put rupture to work.'
We are currently seeing a global escalation in social and environmental disruption, yet concepts ... more We are currently seeing a global escalation in social and environmental disruption, yet concepts like the Anthropocene do not fully capture the intensity and generative scope of this crisis. 'Rupture' is being used as a term for specific and intense episodes of change, such as wildfires or toxic pollution releases. This is a useful addition to our lexicon for nature-society change but needs to be more robustly theorized. Defining rupture as an intense and adverse episode of nature-society disruption that ripples across scales, we elaborate four dimensions that account for rupture's sources and uncertain effects. The first two dimensions consider how rupture emerges in space and time from: (i) synergistic spatial, material, and socio-natural changes across scales; and (ii) the accumulation of slow violence that builds towards and is exposed by punctuated shifts and crisis moments. The second two dimensions consider the outcomes of rupture, namely: (iii) heightened uncertainty, insecurity, and socio-material deprivation, which are experienced in unequal and deeply affective ways; and (iv) the scope to catalyze diverse forms of agency that play out in uncertain ways. To illustrate our discussion, we draw from our long history of research on hydropower landscapes in the Mekong region.
This article develops a framework for conceptualising authoritarian governance and rule in the La... more This article develops a framework for conceptualising authoritarian governance and rule in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. After introducing the national and academic context, which go a significant way towards understanding the paucity of comparative political work on Laos, we propose an approach to studying post-socialist authoritarian and single-party rule that highlights the key political-institutional, cultural-historical and spatial-environmental sources of party-state power and authority. In adopting this approach, we seek to redirect attention to the centralising structures of rule under the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, illustrating how authoritarian institutions of the “party-state” operate in and through multiple scales, from the central to the local level. At a time when the country is garnering greater attention than at any time since the Vietnam War, we argue that this examination of critical transitions in Laos under conditions of resource-intensive development, intensifying regional and global integration, and durable one-party authoritarian rule, establishes a framework for future research on the party-state system in Laos, and for understanding and contextualising the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party regime in regional comparative perspective.
Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), 2021
The politics of the green economy in provincial Indonesia Insights from coal and oil palm sector ... more The politics of the green economy in provincial Indonesia Insights from coal and oil palm sector reforms in East Kalimantan Key messages • East Kalimantan province (Kaltim) has adopted and developed a long-term phased 'green' economic reform strategy that includes goals to limit coal production and increase agricultural productivity, particularly in the oil palm sector.
Abstract While scholars and policy makers have increasingly focused on transnational labour migra... more Abstract While scholars and policy makers have increasingly focused on transnational labour migration (TLM) in Asia, few comparative studies have analysed how TLM shapes poverty, livelihoods, vulnerability, and agrarian-forest change across different rural contexts. Based on focused comparative fieldwork and a critical review of the secondary literature, this paper identifies the salient patterns of TLM-led change affecting rural livelihoods and agrarian-forest landscapes in three migrant-sending Asian countries: Nepal, Indonesia and Laos. Depending on how social relations, including those based on gender and ethnicity, and how specific geographic places are integrated into migration pathways, TLM can result in patterns of changes involving agricultural deactivation and de-agrarianisation, as well as incipient re-agrarianisation. We also find that where remittances are integrated with diversified livelihood portfolios, and where state policies play a supportive role, transnational labour migration may improve household livelihoods. In the absence of these factors, the transformative potential of TLM can be overestimated, and TLM may end up reproducing underlying structural drivers of rural poverty and vulnerability. We, therefore, challenge the simplistic narrative that TLM provides an easy solution to the limitations of rural development in agrarian Asia. We suggest policy innovations that ameliorate critical issues of migrant vulnerability and precarity, and that support the mobilisation of labour remittances for agricultural development and livelihood diversification.
Environmental and social impact assessment is now a widely accepted tool in the
Mekong Region for... more Environmental and social impact assessment is now a widely accepted tool in the Mekong Region for assessing the impacts of hydropower dams and large-scale industrial tree plantations. However, the cross-sectoral and cumulative effects of such projects have not been sufficiently addressed. Where cumulative impacts have been considered, studies have focused on a single sector, such as multiple hydropower dams. A separation between land and water management frequently leads those assessing project impacts to overlook or underestimate project outcomes. Here we examine such interactions between industrial plantations and hydropower projects, demonstrating that it is the diverse livelihoods of local people – based on everyday use of multiple resources – that crucially connects aquatic and terrestrial environments. The combined social and environmental changes wrought by resource projects can thus produce particular challenges for these communities, as multiple systems are enclosed and degraded. We present case studies of social and environmental impacts occurring in the Mekong Region: in the Hinboun River Basin in Central Laos; the Xe Bang Fai River Basin, also in Central Laos; and the Sesan River Basin in northeastern Cambodia. We strive to demonstrate the practical usefulness of adopting political ecology frameworks for thinking about these crucial agrarian changes.
Agroforestry has been promoted as a promising model of rural development in Lao PDR (Laos), where... more Agroforestry has been promoted as a promising model of rural development in Lao PDR (Laos), where much upland land use is in transition. Relatively little is known about the contributions of agroforestry systems to Lao farmers' livelihoods, how these systems compare to alternatives, or the extent to which they might contribute to the national policy objective of replacing swidden agriculture. The consequences of customary land tenure for such transitions in Laos are also poorly understood. We investigated independent adoption by farmers in a Central Lao village of an agroforestry system that combines 'yang bong' (Persea kurzii) trees on 7-year rotations with intercrops of rice and bananas. The returns to land from this agroforestry system were more financially rewarding for farming households than swidden cultivation, demonstrating that farmers can develop land use intensification pathways that replace swidden cultivation. However, case study farmers anticipated further expansion of banana monocrops rather of agroforestry systems. In addition, the adoption of the agroforestry system has fostered wealth differentiation in the case study village, reflecting both prior and emerging inequities in the customary land tenure system. Our results indicate that it is important to closely understand the institutional and livelihood contexts of agroforestry systems, to better appreciate their role and potential in supporting sustainable land use transitions. In this case study, the intersection of customary land use practices, national policy goals and land allocation policies, new market opportunities, and farmers' dynamic livelihood strategies, both define and constrain the contribution of agroforestry to land use transitions. Response to Reviewers: We would like to thank the Associate Editor for two constructive suggestions on how to improve the manuscript. The text below presents our responses to the minor revisions. 1) Accepted. Our methods section now describes methods using original text where the reader is referred to a citation.
Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services, 2007
This paper analyses the ideology, implementation and outcomes of a donor-based smallholder tree p... more This paper analyses the ideology, implementation and outcomes of a donor-based smallholder tree planting project in Lao PDR. Drawing on project documents and local level fieldwork in southern Laos, an analysis of the failure of this project to promote viable smallholder eucalyptus plantations is forwarded. The donor vision of producing new rural subjectivities, transforming subsistence oriented peasants into smallholder arboreal
Taking Southeast Asia to Market: Commodities, Nature and People in a Neoliberal Age, 2008
... In the English-language media in Vientiane, news stories increasingly include accounts not on... more ... In the English-language media in Vientiane, news stories increasingly include accounts not only of ... It is useful to situate the Lao plantation sector within a commodity network that ... The socio-naturaltransformations and rural commodifications in Ban Sivilay must be inter-preted ...
Jerome Whitington's Anthropogenic Rivers develops a rich and original set of insights on large-sc... more Jerome Whitington's Anthropogenic Rivers develops a rich and original set of insights on large-scale infrastructure projects, environmental controversy, knowledge and expertise, and the nature of uncertainty. Foucault, Deleuze, and Science and Technology Studies are brought to bear on the ontological problems of sustainability in Mekong hydropower.
The Government of Laos (GoL) views commercial plantation forestry as a key sector for promoting e... more The Government of Laos (GoL) views commercial plantation forestry as a key sector for promoting economic development in rural areas, particularly in upland and priority poor districts. Commercial timber plantations have been implemented through different investment 'models', such as companyled concessions, agroforestry systems, contract farming arrangements, smallholder-led plantations, and village lease schemes. Foreign investors in plantations have used different models to access land for plantation development under past land concessions. Evidence from household surveys and participant-observation in six villages in central and southern Lao PDR indicate that these different models of commercial timber plantations concessions have different outcomes for local livelihoods.
During the last two decades, Asian forests have experienced dramatic paradigm shifts, such as tra... more During the last two decades, Asian forests have experienced dramatic paradigm shifts, such as transition from planned to market economy, shift of timber supply from natural to planted forests, increased role of wood substitutes and NTFPs, decentralization and increase in local people's participation in forest management, and advancement of ecosystem management. These paradigm shifts, and the linkages between forests, society and environment, vary greatly among different countries in Asia. The use of market-based instruments, development of payments for environmental services and community participation should be encouraged to further support sustainable forest resource management in Asia.
Background The European Commission (EC) published a Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade ... more Background The European Commission (EC) published a Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan in 2003. FLEGT aims not simply to reduce illegal deforestation, but in promoting good forest governance, aims to contribute to poverty eradication and sustainable management of natural resources.
chapter, Endres indicates some more recent aspects of these transformations-the ways in which eth... more chapter, Endres indicates some more recent aspects of these transformations-the ways in which ethnic minorities have been "hybridized" by their depictions in the performances, and the influence of overseas Vietnamese returning to their homeland to sponsor new rituals and introduce a more sudden, spontaneous form of possession. The old imperial deities have become "cosmopolitan travelers in the transethnic and transnational spiritscapes" (p. 199) inhabited by the newly mobile populations of those who worship them. Endres herself has proved an insightful and perceptive guide along these journeys. This is an important book as much for the conceptual challenges it presents as the new ethnographic details. It is a theoretically sophisticated study that asks questions about the role of particular agents and power relations in resurrecting and reconstituting a once suppressed set of ritual practices. The answers that it provides will appeal to scholars of religion, ritual and Vietnamese studies.
In contemporary Lao PDR (Laos), rural areas and communities are experiencing relatively rapid soc... more In contemporary Lao PDR (Laos), rural areas and communities are experiencing relatively rapid socio-economic and ecological transformations. As part of my postdoctoral fellowship at Kyoto University, in April 2012, I made a return visit to a number of research locations in southern Laos. In these locations, new foreign investments in agri-business, hydropower, and mining are driving a ‘nature-intensive’ development strategy (Coronil, 2000). For the Government of Lao PDR (GoL), attracting quality foreign investment and promoting the sustainable management of natural resources, represents the primary model for increasing state revenues, and delivering improved public services. The stakes for local communities across Laos are significant. For critics (e.g. Goldman, 2001), Lao resource policy, as supported through the development banks and donors, represents a “green-neoliberal” development model, which will bind local people and ecologies to the logics of global commodity capitalism, a...
1. There are different investment “models” in Laos for establishing tree plantations, including i... more 1. There are different investment “models” in Laos for establishing tree plantations, including independent smallholders, contract arrangements, community land ‘leases’ and state land ‘concession’ investments. Joint venture, international and domestic investors are highly interested in securing more land for plantation development. However, issues around land allocation for tree plantations need to be addressed; these include protecting customary rights and access to land and resources, and equitable benefit sharing.
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Articles by Keith Barney
Mekong Region for assessing the impacts of hydropower dams and large-scale
industrial tree plantations. However, the cross-sectoral and cumulative effects of such projects have not been sufficiently addressed. Where cumulative impacts have been considered, studies have focused on a single sector, such as multiple hydropower dams. A separation between land and water management frequently leads those assessing project impacts to overlook or underestimate project outcomes. Here we examine such interactions between industrial plantations and hydropower projects, demonstrating that it is the diverse livelihoods of local people – based on everyday use of multiple resources – that crucially connects aquatic and terrestrial environments. The combined social and environmental changes wrought by resource projects can thus produce particular challenges for these communities, as multiple systems are enclosed and degraded. We present case studies of social and environmental impacts occurring in the Mekong Region: in the Hinboun River Basin in Central Laos; the Xe Bang Fai River Basin, also in Central Laos; and the Sesan
River Basin in northeastern Cambodia. We strive to demonstrate the practical
usefulness of adopting political ecology frameworks for thinking about these crucial
agrarian changes.
Mekong Region for assessing the impacts of hydropower dams and large-scale
industrial tree plantations. However, the cross-sectoral and cumulative effects of such projects have not been sufficiently addressed. Where cumulative impacts have been considered, studies have focused on a single sector, such as multiple hydropower dams. A separation between land and water management frequently leads those assessing project impacts to overlook or underestimate project outcomes. Here we examine such interactions between industrial plantations and hydropower projects, demonstrating that it is the diverse livelihoods of local people – based on everyday use of multiple resources – that crucially connects aquatic and terrestrial environments. The combined social and environmental changes wrought by resource projects can thus produce particular challenges for these communities, as multiple systems are enclosed and degraded. We present case studies of social and environmental impacts occurring in the Mekong Region: in the Hinboun River Basin in Central Laos; the Xe Bang Fai River Basin, also in Central Laos; and the Sesan
River Basin in northeastern Cambodia. We strive to demonstrate the practical
usefulness of adopting political ecology frameworks for thinking about these crucial
agrarian changes.