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In terms of specific implications for access, use and control of land, the case study has found thefollowing:• Contract farming arrangements enable local farmers to utilize the land they alreadyhave. They also stimulate land markets in cases where wealthier farmers rentadditional plots of land to be able to participate in investments. On the other hand,they also encourage the clearance of fallow and forest land, with potential long-termimplications for the environmental sustainability of agricultural production, thefinancial sustainability of the income gains from particular crops, the employmentsustainability from the jobs created, and the food security of households who relyheavily on the collection of NTFPs for their livelihoods – a task which falls largelyunder the responsibility of women. They may also contribute to the replacement oftraditional rice farming by the cultivation of investment crops which are notsustainable in the longer-term (e.g. cassava).• Plantation-style investments under the 1+4 model in Laos potentially have fewerimplications for the ownership of privately-held household land than the allocation ofoutright land concessions to investors for conventional plantations. However, thepressures on village and communal land, including forest land, from all types ofplantations and land concessions have major implications for local people’s rights toaccess, use and control this type of land, with consequent implications for both theirhousehold’s livelihood security and their food security in relation to reducedpossibilities for the collection of NTFPs. This has particular equity implications inthe poorest and most remote parts of Laos which are more heavily forested than inthe richer lowland areas of the country, and where many people from minority ethnicgroups live.Through the fieldwork undertaken for this case study, some positive examples of initiatives andmeasures adopted in relation to land-related agricultural investments in Laos have neverthelessemerged, from both companies and smallholder development projects. Some of them deserveattention and incorporation into policy-making and regulatory frameworks on investments – they arenot all directly related to gender and thus there remains much room for improvement, but they areindicative of some of the practices and measures emerging in better quality examples of land-relatedagricultural investments in Laos.• In contract farming, one company’s transparent process for developing each year’sgrowing policy with contract farmers and attention given to improving qualitythrough training and extension work, the timely provision of inputs and protectiveequipment etc.;• In plantation agriculture, another’s company’s strong commitment to developing andsupporting local livelihoods, its provision of labour and income-generatingopportunities for women and people from minority ethnic groups, includingpromotion possibilities, its equitable payment policy towards both permanentemployees and casual labourers, women and men etc.;• A third company’s model of sustainable community-based agro-forestrydevelopment, in particular the participatory methodology for plantation site selectionand the provision of opportunities to local households, mainly from poorer minorityethnic groups, for both regular long-term work on the plantation and their ownfarming and grazing between the trees;• A project supporting the development of mixed local farmers’ production groups andlinking them to markets, helping to create a positive enabling environment for ruralwomen and men to engage in agricultural investments; and• Another project’s flexible, gender-sensitive and participatory agricultural extensionand training approach, helping to support local farmers in improving their production49