The agrarian transition in the Mekong Region: pathways towards sustainable land systems

Figures & data

Figure 1. Poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines (% of population) in the countries of the Mekong region. The World Bank, World development indicators used for this figure (https://databank.worldbank.org/) include only one entry for the Lao PDR in 2018. Two other datapoints were added based on the national population census data, found in Epprecht et al. (2018).

Figure 2. Changes of poverty rates between 2005 and 2015 and land-based investments in agricultural commodities and tree plantations in the Lao PDR (Nanhthavong et al., 2021).

Figure 3. Changes in poverty incidence from 2005 to 2015 in 109 villages on the Bolaven Plateau in southern Laos. Data source: Lao statistics Bureau.

Figure 4. Loss of primary forest in the countries of the Mekong region (2001–2017). Sources: Global land analysis and discovery lab (GLAD): https://glad.umd.edu/dataset/mekong.

Figure 5. Deforestation (loss of primary forest) in Cambodia between 2001–2017. Sources: (1) land use 2017: SERVIR www.landcovermapping.org/en/landcover (2) deforestation: Potapov et al. (2019). (3) agro-industrial concessions (as of 2012): www.Licadho-cambodia.Org/ Mapping and data computation by the authors.

Table

	Vietnam	Cambodia	Lao PDR	Thailand	Myanmar
Laws on land ownership	Art. 98 of 2013 Land Law stresses joint use rights	Art. 168–174 of 2001 Land Law stress equal rights to land	Art. 43 of 2003 Land Law stresses joint land titles. 2019 Land Law is gender neutral	Art. 33, 41 of constitution stipulates equal rights to land and non-land assets	2016 National Land Use Policy stipulates equal rights to land
Land titles/land use certificates by gender (Sources below)	Rural land use certificates by gender: 52% men, 17% women, 16% joint,15% other. (a) 60% of joint titles among 3.4 million issued land use certificates. (i) In 2018, 9% of agricultural landowners were women. (f)	>2.3 million land certificates issued 2013–19: 18% to women, 60% joint, 13% to men. (b) 10.2% of women and 8.5% of men own land individually. (c) 2014; (h). 55.2% of women own agricultural land. (g) 2014 In 2018, 9% of women owned agric. land. (f)	9% of LUC held by women. (d), 1999 Census LUC by gender included: 38% women, 23% men, 30% joint titles. (j) 2006 study of 9 provinces found women’s names on 40% of LUC. (c)	28.7% of agricultural landholders in Northern regions are women. 2013 Census. 23% of agricultural land holders are women; 76% men. (d), 2003 Census. Share of women among owners of agricultural land in 2018 is 27%. (f)	27.3% of men and 14.4% of women own land individually. (c) 2016 Share of women owning agricultural land: 56.9%. (g) 2016 Share of women among owners of agricultural land 2018: 15%. (f)

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