This handbook describes the work conducted by GRET to support the development of bamboo value chains supplied by village forests in Houaphan province in Laos. It demonstrates how this support, which lasted from 2008 to 2021, enabled villagers and public and private stakeholders to collectively build sustainable value chains.
The method of intervention used was part of a commons-based approach, facilitating a collective learning process that enabled the gradual, continuous elaboration of rules for management of the resource, drawing on local knowledge and practices. The handbook describes the decisive elements of this approach: the implementation of a political and institutional framework conducive to collective action, the process of collective construction of learning loops and the creation of a local association to continue providing support, which is a precondition for sustainability of the common.
Intended for associations, NGOs and donors promoting initiatives around commons, this document focuses on lessons learned that can be useful for continuing the dynamic undertaken in Laos, and for designing and implementing similar approaches in other contexts.
