The project for Sustainable Micro-Watershed Management in Northern Uplands of Laos (SWAN), funded by AFD, is being implemented by the Laos Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF). This project has been associated with GRET’s action-research programme on the commons (link) since its design phase.

In partnership with Lao Consulting Group (LCG), GRET is coordinating the IP2 component, which has a specific focus on shared governance of three watersheds in Phongsaly, Luang Prabang and Xiengkhouang provinces. The objective is to reconcile conservation of natural resources, economic development and climate resilience, involving local stakeholders in villages and provinces.

Supporting “commoning” around watersheds

The LCG and GRET teams are taking a commons-based  approach, drawing on the findings of the Bamboo project (read more about this in our Carnet Faire commun. The goal is to create spaces for dialogue, learning and collective action, with the participation of villages, authorities and technical departments in the districts, and of private stakeholders. The Bamboo and NTFP* Development Association (BNDA), an organisation committed to commons-based, gender- and diversity-inclusive management of forests, is also providing its know-how.

*Non Timber Forest Products

Practical tools for local management of watersheds

The approach taken features several key stages:

– A participative diagnosis conducted in each village, during which the people residing there recounted their experience of the watershed, identified local issues and proposed priority actions;

– Creation of learning and consultation groups in each watershed (Watershed Learning Groups), bringing together some fifty local stakeholders twice a year (users and village representatives, governmental authorities and private sector) to discuss, learn, draw up rules and steer actions to conserve and manage the watershed.

– Micro-projects (agriculture, livestock farming, water resource management…) are identified and carried out locally;

– Peer discussions are also organised to enable users and local authorities to learn practices that were tested in other villages and provinces for forest management, agroecology and irrigation techniques;

– A monitoring and evaluation system, designed with and for stakeholders in the watershed, in order to capitalise on experiences and adjust strategies.

Thanks to this approach, in addition to ensuring technical management of watersheds, the ambition is to also support communities towards sustainable shared governance, so that they become fully active in decisions and actions to be taken.