Deforestation
Further information: Deforestation in Laos
Even into the 1990s, the government viewed the forest as a valued reserve of natural products for noncommercial household consumption. Government efforts to preserve valuable hardwoods for commercial extraction have led to measures to prohibit slash-and-burn agriculture throughout the country. Further, government restrictions on clearing forestland for slash-and-burn cropping in the late 1980s, along with attempts to gradually resettle upland slash-and-burn farming villages (ban) to lowland locations suitable for paddy rice cultivation, had significant effects on upland villages.
Traditionally, villages rely on forest products as a food reserve during years of poor rice harvest and as a regular source of fruits and vegetables. By the 1990s, however, these gathering systems were breaking down in many areas. At the same time, international concern about environmental degradation and the loss of many wildlife species unique to Laos has also prompted the government to consider the implications of these developments.