Laos in the Canopy Global 1000

Ranked of 1,000 by conservation value. Both rankings are shown: plant data is being added, and neither is the final word. Lower is higher priority.

Who manages protected areas

From Canopy’s country evidence record for Laos, compiled 2026-10-05 from the sources named under each item. A field marked not reported was not verified in those sources, which is not evidence that it does not exist.

Managing agency: Department of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (Protected Area Management Division). The 2019 Forestry Law and the 2023 Protected Areas Decree place national conservation forests under the agriculture and forestry ministry (decree adopted 20 June 2023 centralised PA governance there), and the March 2025 merger folded that ministry into the new Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.

System: National conservation forests (protected area system) within the Forestry Law's conservation forest category.

Sources: Asia News Network (Vientiane Times syndication): Lao NA approves ministry mergers, amendments to constitution, laws, investment incentives, 2025-03-24; Lao Official Gazette (Department of Forestry / Ministry of Justice print): Law on Forestry (Revised), English print edition 2021 (resolution No. 08/NA of 13 June 2019; promulgation decree No. 255/P of 25 July 2019), 2019-06-13; Khaosan Pathet Lao (KPL, state news agency): Sustainable Management and Funding Plan for Lao PDR National Parks Launched; Vientiane Times: Laos expands forest protection initiative (Deputy Minister report on conservation forest counts), 2023-03-03; Vientiane Times: Forest protection initiative (Phou Khao Khouay and Phou Phanang), 2025-02-21; Wildlife Conservation Society Laos: Protected Area Decree 2021 strives toward the goal of safeguarding nature and nurturing people, 2021; Wildlife Conservation Society Laos: Lao PDR adopts the Protected Areas new decree to safeguard and restore biodiversity, 2023.

Legal framework

Law on Forestry (Revised), No. 64/NA, 2019-06-13.

Administration: Adopted by the National Assembly on 13 June 2019 (resolution 08/NA) and promulgated by presidential decree 255/P on 25 July 2019. Forests fall into protection, conservation and production categories (Arts 14 to 17); conservation forests are national, provincial, district and village level (Art 16) and are managed through surveys, boundary markers, mapping and zoning with local participation (Art 48). Finance: Forest Protection Fund (Arts 130 to 132): a state fund fed by budget, resource fees, shares of timber and NTFP income, forest ecosystem service and carbon payments, fines, and donor contributions; used among other things for protection and development of conservation forests and national parks. Art 103 allows forest carbon trading under government policy. Limits on application: Conservation forestland is zoned into totally protected zones (only research and ecotourism trails), controlled use zones (village NTFP harvest, ecotourism, farming and tree planting but no commercial felling of natural trees) and buffer zones (Art 71).

Sources: Lao Official Gazette (Department of Forestry / Ministry of Justice print): Law on Forestry (Revised), English print edition 2021 (resolution No. 08/NA of 13 June 2019; promulgation decree No. 255/P of 25 July 2019), 2019-06-13; Open Development Mekong / UNEP LEAP: Forestry Law (law number and category summary).

Decree on Protected Areas (2023 revision, replacing Decree No. 134 of 2015), 2023-06-20.

Administration: Adopted by the Prime Minister; centralises PA governance at the agriculture ministry, with national PAs spanning several provinces run centrally and single-province ones through provincial offices; PA management offices become technical budget units. Finance: Names payment for ecosystem services, carbon credits, nature tourism, conservation concessions and biodiversity offsets as possible future sustainable finance. Limits on application: Six PA categories aligned with IUCN; zones are totally protected, controlled use and buffer; a Guardian Village approach uses conservation contracts for local co-management.

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society Laos: Lao PDR adopts the Protected Areas new decree to safeguard and restore biodiversity, 2023.

Law on Wildlife and Aquatic Animals (Wildlife and Aquatic Law), No. 07/NA, 2007-12-24.

Administration: National Assembly law; effective 22 March 2008; covers wildlife and aquatic species and refers to national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Article-level administration not read. Finance: not reported. Limits on application: Sorts species into prohibited, managed and controlled, and common categories; protected species habitats are to be safeguarded.

Statute summary paraphrased from the cited text; a missing finance entry means no finance provision was verified, not that none exists. Source: InforMEA: Wildlife and Aquatic Resources Law No. 07/NA, 2007-12-24.

Protected-area coverage

Terrestrial: 18.8% of national land area, its area not stated by the source; as of 2025.

World Bank WDI indicator ER.LND.PTLD.ZS for 2025, a published statistic the World Bank compiles from UNEP-WCMC data; transcribed as published, no WDPA records or polygons used. The 4.9 million ha reported by the Deputy Minister in 2023 covers national, provincial and district areas and is a different basis; it is not converted into this row. Source: World Bank (indicator compiled from UNEP-WCMC protected-area statistics): World Development Indicators: Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area), LAO, 2026-07-13.

Marine: not reported. Landlocked: no marine area, marine coverage not applicable.

Source: World Bank (indicator compiled from UNEP-WCMC protected-area statistics): World Development Indicators: Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area), LAO, 2026-07-13.

National inventory, as of 2023-03-03: 26 protected areas, 4,900,000 ha.

Count 26 = 19 national conservation forests + 6 national parks + 1 wildlife conservation area (national level only). The 4.9 million ha total, as reported by the Deputy Minister, covers ALL levels including 57 provincial conservation forests and 95 district protected forests; a national-only area was not found. The article's own total of 177 designations differs by one from the sum of the listed items (178).

Source: Vientiane Times: Laos expands forest protection initiative (Deputy Minister report on conservation forest counts), 2023-03-03.

Funding mechanisms

Selected programmes, each with the basis its source states. Amounts are programme or fund totals, not annual protected-area receipts, and are not added together or converted between currencies.

FCPF Carbon Fund Emission Reductions Payment Agreement, northern Laos (six provinces, one third of national territory), 2021-01-27.

Amount: USD 42,000,000 (ceiling on results-based payments for up to 8.4 million tonnes CO2e through 2025; first payment of USD 16 million on 9 July 2024 for 3.2 million tonnes in 2019 to 2021 (search snippet)). Administrator: World Bank (FCPF) with Government of Lao PDR. Scope: Landscape REDD+ programme in Houaphanh, Luang Prabang, Oudomxay, Luang Namtha, Bokeo, Xayabouly; not limited to PAs.

Sources: Forest Carbon Partnership Facility: Lao PDR received payment of 16 million from World Bank-administered forest carbon fund (FCPF 2024 annual report story), 2024; World Bank: Lao PDR signs agreement to protect forests and reduce carbon emissions, 2021-01-27.

Nam Theun 2 hydropower watershed protection funding for Nakai-Nam Theun National Park (Watershed Management and Protection Authority), 2010.

Amount: USD 1,300,000 (per year from the project to watershed protection per World Bank and NTPC pages; one search snippet gave USD 1 million per year for 25 years, so the annual figure is disputed (see disagreements)). Administrator: Nam Theun 2 Watershed Management and Protection Authority (WMPA). Scope: Nakai-Nam Theun park, over 4,000 sq. km; commercial operation began 2010.

Sources: European Investment Bank / World Bank feature stories (search result set): Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project, Laos (WMPA funding text), 2011-08-03; Nam Theun 2 Power Company: An Iconic Project for Laos; World Bank: Nam Theun 2 project overview and update.

KfW Integrated Conservation of Biodiversity and Forests (Nam Kan, Nam Ha, Khoun Xe Nong Ma, part of Hin Nam No), 2024-03-21.

Amount: not stated (EUR 15.5 million Financial Cooperation grants over eight years plus EUR 2 million from the Lao government; no USD conversion given in source). Administrator: KfW Development Bank with Lao government. Scope: About 933,000 ha of protected land and 648,000 ha of forest, 148 villages.

Source: KfW Development Bank: KfW news: Integrated Conservation of Biodiversity and Forests, Laos, 2024-03-21.

Forest Protection Fund (Forestry Law Arts 130 to 132), 2019-06-13.

Amount: not stated (no fund size found in sources read). Administrator: State fund under the national treasury system. Scope: Forest and conservation forest management, national parks, policy and research.

Source: Lao Official Gazette (Department of Forestry / Ministry of Justice print): Law on Forestry (Revised), English print edition 2021 (resolution No. 08/NA of 13 June 2019; promulgation decree No. 255/P of 25 July 2019), 2019-06-13.

ECILL project: national parks management and funding plan (EU and French Development Agency support, WCS technical help), date not reported.

Amount: not stated (amount not stated on page read). Administrator: Department of Forestry. Scope: Three-year plan for national parks including Nam Et-Phou Louey.

Source: Khaosan Pathet Lao (KPL, state news agency): Sustainable Management and Funding Plan for Lao PDR National Parks Launched.

What this record does not establish

Comparable C-RISK/readiness and delivery scores. No country calibration or model assessment authorized for Southeast Asia.

Current annual national PA financing need, agency budget and gap. No validated cost rate, executed agency budget or complete current funding inventory was verified; programme totals cannot fill these fields.

Complete park, carbon and legal-event inventories. Selected national documents do not establish complete inventories, status-change (PADDD) histories or park observations.

Research limit. National-level conservation-forest area is not established (4.9 million ha covers all levels); the 2019 Forestry Law number No. 64/NA was not seen in the gazette PDF.

Research limit. Nam Theun 2 watershed funding is reported at two annual levels (USD 1.3m and USD 1m); the 2024 FCPF payment amount rests on a search snippet.

Not here yet

Canopy’s country readiness score (C-RISK) and its PACE management scores cover Africa today. They have not been published for Laos.

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