CONTEXTS - The Rough Guide to Laos - page 433

villages around which they rotate cultivation within a large swath of forest, and others shift-
ing their settlements from hillside to hillside. Nearly all midland and upland groups rely on
swidden rice cultivation. Given the destruction of vast tracts of forest every year due to this
method (a sight that visitors to the north during the months of March to May cannot fail to
notice), there is a move towards educating farmers and villagers in the hope that they can ad-
opt less destructive methods - conversely, however, some say that this practice keeps the soil
fertile and the forests in balance.
The Lao government has used shifting agriculture among tribal peoples, especially the
Hmong, as a reason to forcibly resettle thousand of highland families. The stated policy is to
protect forest habitats and to bring hill peoples closer to community resources such as hos-
pitals and schools. While this may have been beneficial for forests, the effects on resettled
peoples are often no less than disastrous.
The Mekong
With a limited land base for agriculture, it's no surprise that freshwater ecosystems are
of massive importance to Laos. The heart and soul of Laos's freshwater ecosystems is the
Mekongriver , the longest river in Southeast Asia, and the tenth largest in the world, carrying
475,000 million cubic metres to the sea each year. With the beginnings of its 4180km journey
in a frozen stream high up in the Plateau of Tibet, the Mekong travels the entire length of
Laos before slipping through Cambodia and fanning out into the “Nine Dragons” that consti-
tute the river's delta in Vietnam. The Mekong is joined by fourteen major tributaries during
the course of its 1993km journey through Laos. Nearly all the rivers and mountain streams in
the country eventually find their way into the Mekong, as ninety percent of Laos drains into
the river.
Rural life revolves around the Mekong River System, which encompasses everything from
the myriad mountain streams to the flooded rice paddies to the river itself. It generates power,
waters crops, provides a place to bathe and is an all-important source of fish. In most of low-
land Laos, as well as in many parts of the highlands, fish and other aquatic animals provide
more than seventy percent of the animal protein in people's diet. Nowhere in Laos is this
more evident than in the country's southernmost tip, where almost every family fishes and
every meal includes something from the Mother of Waters. It is in this region that the Mekong
expands to attain its greatest width - 14km at the height of the rainy season - and journeys
through the country's best known wetlands : Si Phan Don and the Khone Falls .
Forests
The country is dominated by mixed deciduousforests , in which trees survive lengthy periods
of minimal rainfall by shedding their leaves in order to conserve water. Tall, pale-barked dip-
terocarps , a group of tropical hardwoods prized for their timber, tower over these monsoon