Study on communal land registration in Lao PDR

Field visits to over twenty villages in five different provinces of the Lao PDR have shown that across all ethnic groups, communities use and manage communal lands. Types of lands often found to be under communal management include upland areas, grazing lands and village use and sacred forests. Communities and use groups have devised local rules for provision, management and appropriation of communal resources. Valuable lessons for the process of recognizing communal land rights can also be drawn from two neighbouring countries. The governments of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have adopted provisions of long-term statutory land use rights of community groups based on customary tenure systems.