Laos – IDA and SCF-FIP Grants for the Scaling-Up Participatory Sustainable Forest 

Management Project

May 31, 2013

U.S. Position

The United States supports the Bank’s engagement in the Lao forestry sector through this project

financed by IDA and the Forest Investment Program (FIP), and welcomes the project’s goals to 

promote sustainable forest management, enhanced carbon storage, and reduced emissions from 

deforestation. The United States appreciates that the project is rated Category A in light of the 

significant social safeguard risks identified, and the United States urges the Bank to proceed 

promptly in collecting remaining baseline data and to provide robust monitoring and project 

supervision. The United States takes comfort that the project’s objectives will also be supported 

by a strong program of technical assistance financed in parallel by Finland. The United States 

looks forward to the Bank following through on the development of clear, effective and 

transparent benefit sharing mechanisms that are established in a consultative and participatory 

manner with key stakeholders. It will be important to monitor how participatory sustainable 

forest management (PFSM), including Community Action Plans and timber harvesting activities, 

are effective in advancing REDD+ objectives.

Strong attention to ethnic minority issues will be essential to project success. The United States

urges the Bank to employ adequate anthropology/ethnography expertise at all levels of the 

project to ensure that knowledge concerning ethnic groups is appropriately integrated. It will be 

important to identify early on which ethnic minorities will be involved in the project to enable 

the Bank to develop specific, culturally appropriate approaches, learning lessons from the 

reviews of the Bank’s previous forestry projects in Laos. A strong understanding of vulnerable 

groups’ needs must be followed through in project activities. The United States expects the 

project to respect the rights of ethnic minorities that are set forth in the Laotian constitution. The 

United States is pleased that the project includes an Ethnic Group Planning Framework, an 

access restriction process framework and a grievance redress mechanism to ensure that ethnic 

minorities are fully included in project benefits and that impacts on customary land or access 

restrictions are handled appropriately. The United States also welcomes that the Dedicated Grant 

Mechanism under the FIP plans to support indigenous peoples groups and local communities in 

Laos, helping increase their voice and effective engagement in forest-related activities.

Minority women face very particular constraints. The United States is pleased that the project 

team will carry out an annual gender assessment and that results will be employed to strengthen 

implementation of the Community Action Plans.

The United States welcomes the plans for integrated spatial mapping of the forest area in 

Northern Laos. This will enable the government at the national and sub-national levels to have a 

better understanding of the implications and trade-offs of the various land allocations. This is an 

essential step toward illuminating, and eventually addressing, the difficult political economy 

issues that underlie the key drivers of deforestation in Laos.