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Poor rural people manage vast areas of land and forest. They have the potential to be important players in protecting natural resources and providing important environmental services. An IFAD-supported project has helped build momentum and public interest in rewards for environmental services and has developed ways to offer incentives to poor farmers who protect ecosystems at the national level in China, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, the Philippines and Viet Nam.

Houay Hid village, in the foothills of Nam Bak district, Luang Prabang province, is surrounded by forest and fertile paddy fields. Its residents seem to have everything they need for a prosperous and healthy life.

Phanya has been encouraged by her teachers to think big for the future. “I love going to school,” says 11-year-old Phanya. “I don’t want to get married. I want to study for many years, go to university and then work in an office – maybe become a doctor.”

Known as the land of a million elephants, Laos experienced an economic boom when it opened up its economy more than a decade ago. Although economic growth rates were impressive, urban planners scrambled to develop new ways to cope with the by-product of this growth: increased pollution of the air, water, and soil in the cities, where most of the growth was occurring. 

On the Mekong River in the far South of Laos is an area known as Si Phan Don, meaning ‘four thousand Islands’. The largest of these islands is Don Khong, measuring 18 km by 8 km, and inhabited by 55,000 people who depend on fishing and rice cultivation.