Finland Futures Research Centre
Future Resource Economy and Policies in Laos till the Year 2020 (2008-2011)
The main development challenge for Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is to eradicate mass poverty. Lao PDR has rich natural resources which play a vital role in country’s socio-economic development. Laos has huge hydropower potential in the Mekong river and its tributaries. While grid electricity has only limited potential to cover rural areas due to rugged landscape and scattered population, other sources of rural electricity are commonly available including e.g. solar power and small scale hydropower. Biomasses can be used for heating purposes and grown for transport fuel production (biodiesel and biogas).
While exports earnings of Laos will be based on hydropower and minerals, renewable energy resource base in rural areas can offer communities basic energy services they need and generate additional sources of income. The challenge for Lao decision makers is the holistic planning of their natural resources for country's development.
FREPLA 2020 project incorporates resource development viewpoints into a single R&D set-up. Project aims at identifying interlinkages, barriers, trade-offs and synergies of using the full potential of rural energy resources and applying holistic water management in national strategic planning. It is important to assure that the Mekong river system and its ecosystem services - including both national and regional agri- and aquacultures, are not excessively disturbed by hydropower or any other projects such as mining.
Following R&D methods are used and developed for the Laotian context: Adaptive foresight, Decomposition analyses, Material and energy flow modelling, Delphi Policy studies and Deep Interviews. The project produces several outputs: an integrated monitoring system for sustainable energy and water resources management; empirical national level resource management analyses; empirical sectoral level analyses for energy use; trend and scenario analyses of resources use; and analyses with selected set of environmental and socio-economic indicators. Laotian counterparts and partners are engaged into the project by five consecutive workshops held in Laos during 2009-2011.
The project is funded by the Academy of Finland.
Project Staff
- Jari Kaivo-oja, Research Director
- Juha-Pekka Snäkin, Senior Researcher
- Sari Jusi, Ph.D Student
Contact the research team members by email: firstname.lastname@tse.fi
FINLAND FUTURES RESEARCH CENTRE