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Managing complex landscape mosaics in areas dominated by poverty often requires addressing conflicting objectives and managing trade-offs, e.g. between maintaining/enhancing ecological functions and improving livelihood. Laos, like many other developing countries depending on agriculture and natural resources for the subsistence of a mostly rural population, has used land-use planning (LUP) as a core policy instrument towards sustainable development. However, previous reviews of LUP implementation showed large discrepancies between policies and practices and between the intended goals and actual outcomes. There is a need for increased participation, improved integration of scales, harmonization of superimposed plans, and enhanced coordination between implementing agencies and other stakeholders. As a consequence, former normative approaches to LUP have been gradually replaced (at least on paper) by a new paradigm. Participatory land-use planning (PLUP) has recently become one of the flagships of donor-supported programs in developing countries.
Despite the good intentions of PLUP principles, the implementation remains entangled with confused ‘on-the-ground’ issues that compromise effective participation. As alternative to complex ‘high-tech’ LUP models that local stakeholders are not able to use and replicate, a communication platform supporting negotiations among multiple stakeholders groups has been tested in a village cluster of Luang Prabang Province in northern Laos. This innovative approach based on a combination of role playing game, participatory 3D modeling, GIS and socioeconomic and environmental impact assessment, allows stakeholders to collectively explore the consequences of land-use decisions and to choose between alternative future landscapes.
Published during the 2011 Colorado Conference on Earth System Governance