Overview
In the mountains of northern Lao PDR, one storm can wash out a village road. A dry spell can leave a community without access to drinking water. A landslide can cut off families from access to schools and hospitals. Communities fear that they can’t respond as climate change increases the frequency and severity of these events.
From July 2026 to June 2028, ICEM is working with communities on Climate-Resilient and Ecosystem-Based Infrastructure in targeted village clusters in Oudomxay, Phongsaly and Xiengkhouang provinces to address these issues. The work is part of a landscape approach to address climate resilience from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
Implementation is under the Community Livelihood Enhancement and Resilience (CLEAR) project, which has been helping vulnerable communities in 450 villages across seven provinces to cope with these issues. CLEAR improves livelihoods through community-led improvements to rural infrastructure, food security, and nutrition. CLEAR is managed by the Government of Lao PDR Ministry of Agriculture and Environment with financing from the World Bank.
Thinking beyond a single location
Taking a landscape approach involves examining the streams, slopes, soils, forests and farmlands that communities share throughout the year, including the wet and dry seasons. Healthy ecosystems protect infrastructure and communities. Planted riverbanks resist erosion. Well-managed slopes are less likely to collapse. Combining engineering with nature makes infrastructure last longer and brings extra benefits for people and biodiversity.
What we are doing
- Mapping risks with communities: Villagers, local officials, CLEAR staff, and our specialists map hazards and natural resources together, so solutions start with local knowledge.
- Building model sites in Nhot Ou district in Phongsaly, Nga district in Oudomxay and Nong Het district in Xiengkhouang. ICEM will help select, design and build three demonstrations of nature-based protection, from the first idea through to handover.
- Strengthening skills of CLEAR’s engineering staff, district staff, Young Graduates, village implementation teams and local contractors. A learning by doing approach is being taken, so the know-how is localised to further benefit communities after the project ends.
- Measuring and sharing what works by tracking how many people benefit and how many hectares of ecosystem are protected or restored. Guidelines, briefs and case studies will help other villages and programmes into the future.
From the field
Between September and October 2026, ICEM’s team spent three
weeks in Nong Het, Nga and Nhot Ou districts, working with CLEAR staff,
district officers and Village Implementation Teams (VITs). Communities in all
three districts described similar pressures: landslides, flooding and erosion
of roads; land degradation where forest has given way to upland crops such as maize
and sugarcane; and seasonal drought that leaves households short of domestic
water. The participatory mapping sessions drew well beyond the VIT members,
with at least ten other community members joining in most villages and more
than 50 in some. Ban Houai Thao in Nong Het, Ban Thin in Nga and Ban Nakong in
Nhot Ou were selected as priority sites for ICEM’s future model demonstration
works.
Working together
None of this happens alone. We work side by side with CLEAR at
national and district levels, with partners including the Department of Land
Administration and Management (DLAM), the International Water Management
Institute (IWMI), the Department of Agricultural Extension and Cooperatives
(DAEC) and the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI),
and above all with the village communities themselves.
We are grateful to SDC for its support, to the Government of
Lao PDR and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, and to the CLEAR team
in Lao PDR for their trust, knowledge and daily partnership. Without them, this
work would not be possible.
