WWF has been present in Laos since the late 1980s, with the official establishment of the country office taking place in 2001. Our three main strategies are: Landscape Planning & Management, Wildlife & Protected Areas, and Responsible Investments, Production & Consumption. Our key target provinces are: Xayabouly, Bolikhamxay, Khammouan, Savannakhet, Champasak, Salavan, Xekong, and Attapeu. And our vision by 2030 is that the human footprint in Laos stays within the country’s capacity to maintain the full spectrum of biological diversity and ecosystems.
The Annamite Mountains separating Laos and Vietnam cover almost 23 million hectares and have one of the greatest concentrations of endemic species in a continental setting. In southern Laos, the Mekong River provides the highest amount of fish consumed in the country, and is an area of unique aquatic diversity. Within Laos’ borders, WWF Priority Species include the Asian elephant, Eld’s deer, Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin, Mekong giant catfish, Mekong giant stingray, the elusive saola, and other ungulate species.
Despite this great variety of life, Laos’ biodiversity faces numerous threats. Increasing wildlife crime, infrastructure projects, and rapid habitat loss pose real and present risks to the integrity of special ecosystems and the species that inhabit them.
While WWF has been present in Laos since the late 1980s, the official establishment of the WWF-Laos Country Office took place in 2001.
From our head office in Vientiane capital and the Southern Provinces Coordination Office is in Champassak province. We have over 40 passionate and determined staff working on a broad range of issues including species protection, protected area management, forest governance, freshwater conservation and natural resource management with the overall goal of building a future in which the people of Laos live in harmony with nature.
WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by:
1) Conserving the world’s biological diversity
2) Ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable
3) Promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption
To do this, WWF uses the best available scientific information to find solutions to today’s pressing conservation issues. We seek dialogue by building relationships with government, other conservation-focused organisations, industries and communities to deliver our goals.
Laos has lost an unimaginable amount of its forest and wildlife over the past decades. Consequently, today's generation only knows the names of some species from stories. Despite this seemingly dismal state, there is still hope - a hope to save the remaining fauna and flora that are endangered and under threat - a hope that the people of Laos will act now for Lao forests and wildlife, speaking together with a voice that will inspire protection of Laos’ biodiversity. Because extinction is a very real risk that cannot be undone, so now more than ever it is time for all of us to unite and together, protect the natural wonders of Laos. Together, we can be stewards of WWF’s mission to conserve nature by reducing the most critical threats impinging on natural diversity in Laos and on earth, and to build a future where the people of Laos live in harmony with nature. BECAUSE TOGETHER, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
In its strategic plan, WWF-Laos will focus on protecting forest, freshwater and wildlife, which will not only be a critical contribution to WWF’s global conservation goals, but also helps reduce poverty through sustainable natural resource management.
An essential part of this strategy is the ‘landscape approach’ to conservation. This approach seeks to reconcile conservation and development through interventions in different components of the landscape, some of which focus on livelihoods and development goals and others on the natural environment.
We will also build upon previous activities in three priority sites:
In the northwest of the country, Nam Poui Priority Site encompasses one of the most significant National Biodiversity Conservation Areas in the country, a place of critical importance for conservation of the Asian elephant.
The Central Laos Priority Site, where rattan Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification and Community Fisheries have been successfully piloted.
The Savannakhet Priority Site is home to the endangered Eld’s deer and is located within the lower Mekong dry forests, where spatial land use planning and participatory conservation approaches have been introduced.
“Together possible” is WWF’s mantra - a declaration that while no one person or institution can take on the complex global conservation threats alone, when we combine our efforts, anything is possible. Working together is how WWF means to achieve its ambitious conservation goals in Laos, to achieve a future in which both people and nature thrive. Over the past few years, WWF has been focusing its conservation work in Laos across three main thematic areas - Wildlife, Forest and Freshwater. Partnerships are central to our work, and in 2019, WWF-Laos continued to expand its partnerships with key government agencies, including the Departments of Forestry; Forest Inspection; Livestock and Fisheries; and Industry and Handicrafts, and the Ministries of Agriculture and Forestry; and Industry and Commerce. We also continued to develop our partnerships with businesses, communities, international donors and multilateral agencies. Together, we have achieved a lot. Read more from the link below to learn about our key activities and outcomes from 2019 which would not have been possible without our partners. Together, we are working towards a future that benefits people and nature.
WWF today published ‘Embedding Human Rights into Nature Conservation: from Intent to Action’, a report from an Independent Panel it commissioned last ...
25 Nov 2020 Read more »
WWF’s Living Planet Report reveals two-thirds decline in wildlife populations on average since 1970
10 Sep 2020 Read more »
On July 28 and 29, 2020, the Department of Forest Inspection (DoFI), in collaborating with the Lao Supreme Court and WWF, held a meeting in Luang ...
05 Aug 2020 Read more »
An estimated 12.3 million snares threaten wildlife in the protected areas of Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam - a group of countries that are at the ...
09 Jul 2020 Read more »
