Lao Landscapes and Livelihoods Project

The development objective of the Lao Landscapes and Livelihoods Project for Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) is to promote sustainable forest management, improve protected area management, and enhance livelihoods opportunities in selected landscapes in Lao PDR. The project comprises of four components. The first component, investing in natural wealth and resilience in forest landscapes objective is to build natural capital from improved forest landscape management. It consists of following sub-components: (i) protected areas and nature-based tourism; and (ii) sustainable forestry and resilient village infrastructure. The second component, livelihoods opportunities from sustainable forest landscapes objective is to improve forest-smart livelihoods opportunities, vocational skills, and nature-based tourism (NBT) development in targeted landscapes. It consists of following sub-components: (i) village livelihood block grants to village development funds; (ii) vocational training and skills development; and (iii) nature-based tourism business leveraging facility. The third component, institutions, incentives, and information objective are to strengthen institutions, policies, incentives, and information for sustainable forest landscapes. It consists of following sub-components: (i) strengthening institutions and policies for landscape management; (ii) strengthening institutions and policies to reduce forest and wildlife crimes; and (iii) information for decision support. The fourth component, project management and monitoring objective is to maintain and enhance project management, monitoring, and learning. It consists of following sub-components: (i) strengthens the capacity of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Department of Forestry (MAF and DOF) in project management, monitoring, evaluation, and coordination; and (ii) supports building partnerships, knowledge sharing with wider stakeholders, regional coordination and dialogues on project related issues,...