Mekong Region Land Governance | Land Portal
Acronym: 
MRLG

Location

Unit 11, House No. 262
Laos
LA

Project Description

Land governance is at the center of development challenges in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Governments are revising land policies and practices in order to face these challenges. The project aims to (i) assist the emergence of more favorable policies and practices for securing the rights and access of family farmers to land and natural resources; and (ii) to strengthen the effectiveness of concerned stakeholders through learning, alliance building and regional cooperation.


The MLRG project is based in Laos, with local offices in three other countries: Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. It supports a wide range of activities (training, exchanges, case studies, focused research, documentation, workshops and seminars) at local, national and regional levels.


The MRLG can support initiatives through three component windows, the first is a learning and advocacy ongoing activity platform supported by National Facilitators in each country. The second two are funded through our Grant Facility open to all stakeholders based on demand and proposals prepared. A short term and immediate response window is the Quick Disbursement Fund (QDF). The second longer term and competitive proposal process is the Innovation Fund (IF). The learning and advocacy activity platform prepared on an annual basis in consultation with stakeholders to organize information collection, analysis, and dissemination, and for horizontal learning and structured learning visits, coaching and pairing, training and organizational strengthening, at the national and regional level.

Mekong Region Land Governance Resources

Displaying 1 - 5 of 108
Library Resource
Recognition of customary tenure in the forest landscapes of the Mekong region
Policy Papers & Briefs
May, 2024
South-Eastern Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam

The policy brief, one of four briefs on the agrarian transition in the Mekong region, explores initiatives and pathways forward to recognise customary tenure arrangements and rights over forest areas in the region. More than 70 million people in the region depend on forest areas but lack formal legal rights to use, manage, and benefit from them. Forest landscapes represent just under half of the region’s total land. Yet, over the past two decades, the region has lost a significant amount of forest due to the expansion of commercial agriculture.

Library Resource
Comparing investments in the Lao Tea Sector: Concessions, contracts, and outcomes for smallholder farmers
Reports & Research
January, 2023
Laos

Most tea in Laos is produced by smallholder farmers, who benefit from highly suitable growing conditions and strong demand for sought-after varieties from the vast Chinese market. However, the sector faces many challenges to achieve its full potential. A key barrier in the northern provinces has been the tendency towards monopsony trade concessions, in which the production of a whole district can be under exclusive control of one buyer.

Library Resource
Gender, tenure and customary practices in forest landscapes
Reports & Research
December, 2022
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal

This report is based on 10 research projects carried out in 18 sites in seven countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Viet Nam. The studies formed the basis of ten informational briefs from the research sites published together with the report (available here: https://www.recoftc.org/publications/0000432). Each study documented the legal frameworks and customary practices that affect indigenous women’s rights to access and manage forest resources and create restrictions on those rights.

Library Resource
Pathways for the recognition of customary forest tenure in the Mekong region
Reports & Research
November, 2022
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam

Globally, about 2 billion people claim ownership of their homes and lands through a customary tenure system. Customary tenure has long been insecure and is under growing pressure in many places. But it is also increasingly recognized through a variety of mechanisms, formal and informal. RECOFTC released a new report on the recognition of customary tenure of communities living in forested landscapes in Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam. It also includes a case study from Thailand.

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