Laos

Coffee is often promoted as Laos’ main vehicle out of poverty, but landmines and unexploded ordinance (UXOs) are also its definitive barrier. The United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development has established nurseries for coffee and tea seedlings in the Xieng Khouang province. Xieng Khouang, however, is also at the heart of Laos’ UXO and landmine problem. In 2004, 96 out of 191 UXO and landmine casualties were from Xieng Khouang.

Throughout Laos, landmines and/or UXOs are a major problem and far larger than the grim numbers indicate—it is believed that the statistics collected understate the number of casualties because no comprehensive database exists and many victims may never make it to a hospital where information would be recorded. From what is known, 58% of casualties are children and another 15% are adult women. Exact numbers are not know, but it is estimated that are about 12,000 new UXO and landmine survivors since 1973, almost a decade after landmines were first laid and bombs first dropped.

• 58% of landmine casualties in Laos are children.
• The UN sees coffee as the main vehicle for economic development in the Xieng Khouang Province where nearly half of Laos’ landmine incidents occurred.
• One half of Laos’ farmland is put at risk by the presence of landmines and UXO.
• Poverty drives many Laotians to tamper with unexploded ordnance to separate the scrap metal, thus increasing the level of casualties.
• Laos is considered the “most bombed country per capita in word history” with more than two million tons of ordnance dropped on it between 1964 ad 1973.

Laos is one of the poorest regions in Southern Asia. One major impediment to its economic development is its landmine and UXO problem. The Landmine Monitor Report notes that the steady increase in casualties in Laos, despite the fact that landmines and UXOs have been a problem for decades, is the “increases in the scrap metal trade” in which the poor collect UXO and attempt to disarm them so that they can sell the metal. Coffee is now being promoted as an industry that is a safe alternative to collecting scrap metal and can be used for crop replacement in areas where opium poppies have previously been grown.

Laotian coffee is making inroads in larger markets as an “exotic” coffee. Referred to as the “champagne” of coffee by the French, coffee was introduced into the Bolaven Plateau more than 100 years ago by French colonists. The crop is presently Laos’ largest agricultural export, and promises to rise in importance if cultivatable land can be secured from landmines and UXOs.