Visa Tuominen, Tytti Pasanen, Ilkka Keskiväli, Hanna Lakkala, Orkide Akgün, Jyrki Luukkanen, Jari Kaivo-oja & Juha Panula-Ontto ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE LAO PDR Results from a 2011 Household Survey FINLAND FUTURES RESEARCH CENTRE FFRC eBOOK 5/2013 1 Contributors to the eBook: Visa Tuominen Tytti Pasanen Ilkka Keskiväli Hanna Lakkala Orkide Akgun Jyrki Luukkanen Jari Kaivo-oja Juha Panula-Ontto The data published in this report was collected as a part of the project: “Interlinkages between Energy and Livelihoods − Data, Training and Scenarios for Sustainable Energy Planning in Laos (INES)”, funded by the Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP) with the Mekong Region, financed by the Min- istry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Nordic Development Fund. Copyright © 2013 Writers & Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku Cover picture © Jyrki Luukkanen ISBN 978-952-249-261-6 ISSN 1797-1322 FINLAND FUTURES RESEARCH CENTRE Turku School of Economics FI-20014 University of Turku, Finland Visiting address: ElectroCity, Tykistökatu 4 B, 20520 Turku Korkeavuorenkatu 25 A 2, FI-00130 Helsinki Yliopistonkatu 58 D, FI-33100 Tampere Tel. +358 2 333 9530 utu.fi/ffrc | [email protected] mekong.fi | [email protected] 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 5 1.1. Lao PDR .................................................................................................................................... 5 1.2. Data Collection and sample .................................................................................................... 14 1.3. Methods .................................................................................................................................. 15 2. DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE ............................................................................................................... 16 2.1. Gender .................................................................................................................................... 18 2.2. Marital status ........................................................................................................................... 18 2.3. Age ......................................................................................................................................... 20 2.4. Ethnic group ............................................................................................................................ 21 2.5. Education of the household head ........................................................................................... 21 2.6. Household members’ ability to read and write ........................................................................ 25 2.7. Household size........................................................................................................................ 28 3. ASSETS, LIVELIHOOD ACTIVITIES, INCOME AND LIABILITIES .................................................. 29 3.1. Land ownership ....................................................................................................................... 30 3.2. Rental land .............................................................................................................................. 31 3.3. Usage of land owned by the village ........................................................................................ 32 3.4. Raising livestock or fish .......................................................................................................... 34 3.5. Livestock ownership ................................................................................................................ 35 3.6. Vehicle ownership ................................................................................................................... 36 3.7. Sources of drinking water ....................................................................................................... 38 3.8. Working in agriculture, fishery or forestry ............................................................................... 41 3.9. Livelihood activities affected by natural or man-made events ................................................ 49 3.10. Business and wage labour activities ....................................................................................... 59 3.11. Business or wage labour activities undertaken due to migration .............................................. 63 3.12. Monthly income ....................................................................................................................... 64 3.13. Monthly expenditure and savings ........................................................................................... 65 3.14. Changes in income ................................................................................................................. 66 4. FOOD SECURITY AND SURVIVAL STRATEGIES ......................................................................... 69 4.1. Production and gathering of food ............................................................................................ 70 4.2. Proteins in the diet .................................................................................................................. 71 4.3. Borrowing rice ......................................................................................................................... 73 4.4. Coping strategies .................................................................................................................... 74 3 5. ENERGY PROFILE .......................................................................................................................... 77 5.1. Energy sources ......................................................................................................................... 80 5.2. Sources of electricity ................................................................................................................ 95 5.3. Collected or produced energy ................................................................................................ 96 5.4. Purchased energy .................................................................................................................. 99 5.5. Ownership of petrol or diesel machinery .............................................................................. 101 5.6. Power cuts ............................................................................................................................ 104 5.7. Access to internet ................................................................................................................. 105 5.8. Cooking fuels and stoves ..................................................................................................... 107 5.9. Collecting firewood ............................................................................................................... 112 5.10. Cooking indoors ................................................................................................................... 114 5.11. Persistent health problems ................................................................................................... 116 5.12. Awareness of new technologies........................................................................................... 118 5.13. Ownership of electrical appliances now and in the future .................................................... 120 6. ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES ..................................................................................................... 136 6.1. Quality of water .................................................................................................................... 139 6.2. Access to rivers, lakes or ponds .......................................................................................... 142 6.3. Access to latrine sanitation .................................................................................................. 144 6.4. Access to community land or forest ..................................................................................... 147 6.5. Land or soil quality ............................................................................................................... 150 6.6. Outdoor air quality ................................................................................................................ 151 6.7. Indoor air quality ................................................................................................................... 154 6.8. Distance to collect firewood ................................................................................................. 157 6.9. Level of noise ....................................................................................................................... 160 7. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................. 161 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................... 162 4 1. INTRODUCTION This report presents the main results of a household survey collected in 2011. The data was originally collect- ed for Finland Futures Research Centre project Interlinkages between energy and livelihoods − Data, training and Sce- narios for sustainable energy planning in Laos (INES). The questionnaire was