AUTHOR=Broegaard Rikke Brandt , Vongvisouk Thoumthone , Mertz Ole 

TITLE=The Impact of Unimplemented Large-Scale Land Development Deals

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 6 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2022.789809

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2022.789809

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=Although many land deals are never implemented, little is known about how unimplemented or abandoned projects affect local communities and the government agencies that promote them. This article analyses the effects on local actors, their land access, land use and perceived tenure security of a large-scale bio-fuel land deal in northern Laos that a Chinese company started implementing but then completely abandoned. The project left local people bound by contracts without cancellation clauses and government actors with debt and loss of prestige, though eventually the continued absence of the company led contracts to be annulled and debts were repaid by local counterparts of the company. While causing substantial tension and frustrations during the years of uncertainty, the final settlement has returned the area to temporary calm. The deal has prepared the government to receive new investors, both in terms of identifying land for development and experiences gained of how to handle international investors. However, it is less clear whether local actors are also better prepared. They seem less likely to comply with future investors and government proposal. It remains to be seen whether they can decline future projects as unbalanced negotiating power when investors and influential government actors with overlapping interests approach them could still be substantial.