Since 2014, Luang Prabang District and Provincial People’s Committees, Luang Prabang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry Office, and District of Agriculture and Forestry Offices of the districts of Muong Nan, Xieng Nguen and Luang Prabang with supervision of the CHESH Lao / SPERI have jointly implemented the program on research and support in securing livelihood sovereignty and sustainable co-management of natural resources of various indigenous groups in the Kuang Si watershed in accordance to the local knowledge, customary laws and formal policies.

Identification, mapping and legitimation of the traditional community territories, boundaries of various livelihood-cultural landscapes, local knowledge based land uses and strengthening the community governance through customary law and statutory law based community regulation on natural resources management are among activities of the above-mentioned cooperation. This cooperation is financially supported by CCFD.

In addition to a set of paper maps and community regulations for forestland management that are recognized by local authorities and functional departments, the program also implemented an electronic mapping system. This aims to assist the forest land tenure and natural resources governance in the post - forest and land allocation more transparent and effective. Please see the following e-map regarding the livelihood sovereignty of Thapene village, one of 7 program community sites in the Kuang Si region.



This e-map describes the traditional territory and boundaries, types of topography and natural resources, and socio-cultural economic features of Thapene village. The map is built in accordance with the customary law and land use plans of the Thapene, recognition of local governments and functional bodies, agreement of the neighboring villages and organizations located in the village. This e-map was completed in December 2016 on the basis of field data measured and collected via GPS by villagers, especially elders, village chiefs, heads of community based organizations, technicians of the Luang Prabang District / Province of Agriculture and Forestry Offices, in consultation with SPERI / CHESH Lao and financial support from CCFD-France. This e-map was inserted into the Google Map in December 2016.

* Refer the emap of the livelihood sovereignty of the Lao Loum and Khmu indigenous groups in Khokmanh village, Luang Prabang, Laos