Picture of the Week 11.8.14 – The Corridor of Opportunity
By Tessa Bunney on 11 August 2014For my first Picture of the Week from my new and ongoing series The Corridor of Opportunity – a banana plantation in Luang Namtha Province – taken in 2011, the year before we moved to Laos. One of my first images, it was one of those defining moments in the project which gave the work some direction and showed me something about Laos I knew nothing about. There have been quite a few of those moments over the last couple of years.
Banana plantation, Luang Namtha Province, 2011. Located in the far north of Lao PDR, along the border with China, The Corridor of Opportunity refers specifically to an area where an evolving cash economy influenced by China is gradually replacing subsistence agriculture with vast swathes of the forest being replaced by cash crops such as rubber, banana and sugar cane.
The Corridor of Opportunity is a series of inter-connected landscape stories documenting the changing environment of Lao People’s Democratic Republic (formerly Laos). It is located in several northern provinces, along the borders with China and Vietnam. Ranging from opium growing villages in the highlands to major dam construction projects along the Nam Ou river, the project aims to unravel the complexities of the contemporary landscape in Lao PDR, a country dominated by its larger neighbours and the creeping in of Western influences.
For generations, the people of Lao PDR have practiced locally developed diverse forms of agriculture and fisheries. More than four out of every five people still live in rural areas and depend directly on the land for their livelihoods. For the most part, they have been sustained by the natural environment and have in turn largely sought to preserve it. But this is changing fast.
Rural communities are being impelled to move from swidden to sedentary cultivation and farmers are being exhorted to produce for markets rather than for family consumption. Forests are being logged, rivers are being dammed, large tracts of land are being given over to largely foreign investors, and mining is on the rise. Many villages have been forcibly displaced or moved or voluntary relocated in search of better conditions. Proponents argue these movements and consolidations increase the access of rural populations to roads, health and education services. Others might argue that it is to keep an eye on their activities and to foster or impel their incorporation into the emerging market economy.
Whilst ethnic communities in developing countries have never been frozen in time as historical or ‘traditional’ icons, the cultural practices and traditions of these communities are currently undergoing massive changes.
The landscape and ethnic cultures of Lao PDR, like those of many other small nations, are changing rapidly with influences from China and the West. This project serves as an exploration of a microcosm of the effects of globalisation in 21st century Asia. By exploring these issues through individual stories, I hope they will illuminate part of the wider picture.