Political Ecology in Asia Dialogue Series: "Problems for the plantations: Challenges for large-scale land concessions in Laos and Cambodia"

Last month, we had a discussion with Professor Ian G. Baird, who is currently a Professor of Geography in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses mainly on mainland Southeast Asia, especially Laos, Thailand and northeastern Cambodia. He has written on a range of themes related to rural political ecology in Southeast Asia, and that also relates to development studies, post-colonial studies, and on indigeneity in Southeast Asia. His work has addressed land and rivers in mainland Southeast Asia, including the impacts of large hydropower dams and economic land concessions.

This discussion focused on to Ian’s research on land concessions in Southern Laos and NE Cambodia, which relates to questions over control and access to land, government strategy and planning towards economic land concessions and commodity exports, forms of community resistance, and the role of global commodity markets.

The video was premiered on CSDS Facebook Page. Below are the timestamps of the video, in case you want to jump to specific section/question.

03:35 To what extent have plantations been established in Southern Laos and NE Cambodia, over what time frame, by which actors and for what purposes?
05:50 Why have political ecology researchers paid attention to plantations in Southern Laos and NE Cambodia? What are the main directions of their research and what are the most important findings overall?
08:05 Your work has mainly focused on Southeast Asia – in the body of research that has been done so far, are the issues outlined here shared with other regions or is there something about the plantation in Southeast Asia that is unique to the region?
09:30 You emphasize in your recent 2019 paper in Journal of Agrarian Change that you would like to draw attention to ‘after the land grab’, in particular for plantation developers. Could you explain why this is significant?
14:15 Follow up: how it relates to commodity prices and what you term ‘resource frontier mentality’?
20:58 How much influence that community activism or civil society activism had in influencing these companies?
25:00 Are there any challenges that are not fixable by these modern agribusinesses when they’re trying to invest in Southern Laos and Northeast Cambodia?
26:28 You conclude that in Southern Laos and NE Cambodia “… plantation development is often fraught with difficulties… ” and that “….. they appear to be frequently constituting “lose-lose-lose” scenarios for villagers, the government and investors.” You also note that some government officials in Laos and Cambodia are themselves becoming less supportive of land concessions. Do you anticipate the decline of the plantation as an approach to development in Southern Laos and Northeast Cambodia?
31:05 Could the analysis that you showed could give insight to ways to transform this thinking of development, if not from mainstream at least to give new ideas about how activist or even government officials might reapproach plantations and development?
34:20 Regarding a political ecology research agenda on plantations and land in Southeast Asia, what would be your suggestions for key priorities?

Further reading: Baird, I. G. (2020). "Problems for the plantations: Challenges for large-scale land concessions in Laos and Cambodia." Journal of Agrarian Change 20(3): 387-407.

Activities and Events