Discovering Sustainability Worldwide
From the category archives:
One of the amazing traditions in Luang Prabang, Laos is the early morning procession of the monks to collect alms, which they will later eat for breakfast. We managed to get up around 6 am three of the mornings we were there to witness the procession. The pictures below are some of our favorites.
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In Vang Vieng, Laos, Keith and I had the happy coincidence of running into Gillian and Jason from one-giant-step.com. We spent the next few days together exploring caves, kayaking down the Nam Song River and just hanging out enjoying the sunsets behind the karsts. Perhaps our greatest adventure was learning how to ride a scooter and going out on our own to explore some of the caves and waterholes off the beaten tourist path.
Having never really ridden on a scooter before, Keith and I jumped at the chance to learn from people with experience. While Jason gave Keith a lesson on how to drive the bike, I suited up in my jeans, facemask and bubblegum pink helmet. Not exactly the most stylish outfit, but I enjoy keeping the skin on my body intact and my lungs dust-free.
It didn’t take long for Keith to get the hang of the bike and soon the four of us were off on the quiet dirt roads that branch out to the west of town. The roads were bumpy and dusty, but with almost no other traffic. And while the fact that no one drives faster than 30 or 40 kilometers per hour can be incredibly frustrating on long, hot bus rides, the slow speeds make riding a scooter an easy experience even when we had to share the road.
The most amazing part of learning to ride a scooter is the new found freedom we have to just jump on a bike and take off, without having to find public transportation (which is often quite limited) or join a tour group (which are often too big or too expensive). For the first time in five months on the road, we were completely on our own schedule, able to spend as much or as little time as we wanted at the different sites around town. Having this freedom will transform how we travel through the rural parts of northern Laos and Thailand. Those sites that once seemed too obscure or difficult to get to are now easily within our reach.
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After three months on the road in Southeast Asia, moving from city to city every three or four days, Keith and I made the decision to slow down the pace of our travel. Part of our decision was rooted in the sheer exhaustion that comes from having to constantly find a new place to stay, figure out how we’re going to get there and learn the lay of a new city. But an even bigger part of our decision to trim down our itinerary was based on our experience in Phnom Penh, where spending a few extra days allowed us to connect with the expat community and learn about all the amazing sustainability efforts under way in Cambodia.
The opportunity to find out about local efforts in sustainability presented itself yet again in Vientiane, Laos as we spent an afternoon wandering around the sleepy capital city. Outside the market we spied a poster on the bulletin board for a presentation about non-timber forest products in Laos. The speaker, Joost Foppes, is a consultant on rights based approaches at Village Focus International. The presentation, sponsored by a women’s expat group, was planned for that evening at a local bookstore. Having plenty of time in Vientiane, we figured why not check it out? We’re glad we did.
Foppes’ presentation focused on the issue of food security in Laos, where Chinese developers are quickly buying up forested land in order to extract and export natural resources back to China. In local villages, much of what is eaten (other than rice) is taken from the forest. This unique wild food culture, where 80% of the population is dependent upon wild foods for sustenance, is linked to the incredible bio-diversity of Laos. The destruction of this bio-diversity has implications that go far beyond the environment; the economic value of the non-timber forest products eaten by villagers is equivalent to 32% of Laos GDP. A more astounding statistic is that the replacement cost for these products is estimated at 120% of current Laos GDP.
The unsustainable deforestation resulting from the export of natural resources is creating the need to replace the food and non-timber forest products that nature provides for free at a cost that is greater than the country’s current GDP. Foppes illustrated this fact with the case of the new Nam Theun II hydroelectric plant. The controversial plant was built to produce electricity for export to Thailand. Only a minimal amount of the production remains in Laos, and the cost to the local food system is substantial. For example, the annual economic value of the fish that have been lost since completion of the hydroelectric plant is estimated to be $1.6 million. However, the cost to replace the nutritional value those fish provide each year as food to local villagers turns out to be $7.4 million.
We saw firsthand just how important local fish are to the villagers of Laos. While kayaking on the Nam Song River outside of Vang Vieng, we witnessed local village boys armed with masks and spears fishing for food. They weren’t out on the river for fun; they were hungry and the fish they find will provide the sustenance they and their families need to survive. By taking the time to learn about the issues of non-timber forest products in Laos, what might have been just another quaint photo opportunity was transformed into a meaningful face-to-face interaction with a pressing environmental issue and the people effected by it most.
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