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12 See also, GOL, ‘National growth and poverty eradication strategy (NGPES)’ (Vientiane: GOL, 2003), pp. 4–5, http://www.undplao.org/newsroom/publication/Ngpes/Lao%20PDR%20-%20NGPES%20-%20Main%20Document.pdf (last accessed on 16 Mar. 2011); and GOL, ‘Forestry strategy to the year 2020 (FS 2020) of the Lao PDR’ (Vientiane: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, GOL, 2005), foreword, http://dof.maf.gov.la/docs/FS2020.pdf (last accessed on 16 Mar. 2011).

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18 Ibid.

19 See Gupta, ‘Blurred boundaries’.

20 For example, United Nations Public Administration Network [hereafter UNPAN], ‘Lao People's Democratic Republic public administration country profile’ (Vientiane: UNPAN, 2005), http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan023237.pdf (last accessed on 16 Mar. 2011); Martin Stuart-Fox, Politics and reform in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Political economy of development working paper no. 1, p. 11 (Williamsburg: The College of William and Mary, 2004).

21 Singh, Sarinda, ‘Living within the state: A dormitory community in central Laos’, in Tai lands and Thailand: Community and state in Southeast Asia, ed. Walker, Andrew (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), 2009), pp. 141–65Google Scholar. I was based in Laos from March 2003 until July 2005. In the latter 12 months, I travelled regularly between Vientiane and Nakai, spending a total of six months in Nakai. For most of this time I lived in the dormitory for forestry officials in the Nakai district centre, a shorter period was spent living in a nearby village. Subsequent visits to Nakai after the main period of my fieldwork indicated many changes because of NT2, which are not considered here.

22 Baird and Shoemaker, ‘Unsettling experiences’; Cohen, ‘Resettlement, opium and labour dependence’; Evrard and Goudineau, ‘Planned resettlement, unexpected migrations and cultural trauma’.

23 Nam Theun 2 Power Company, ‘Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project, social development plan (SDP): Volume II’ (Vientiane: Nam Theun 2 Power Company, 2004).

24 For clarity, I refer to the Nakai district centre in terms of its administrative position, though it has different official and common names.

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26 Singh, Natural potency and political power. For northern Laos, see, for example, Walker, The legend of the golden boat.

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29 Singh, ‘Living within the state’.

30 Ibid.

31 Evers, ‘Bureaucratization of Southeast Asia’, p. 682. See also, Koh, ‘Negotiating the socialist state in Vietnam’.

32 GOL, ‘Forestry strategy to the year 2020’, p. 67.

33 Halpern, Joel M., Government, politics, and social structure in Laos: A study of tradition and innovation, Monograph Series No. 4 (New Haven: Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University, 1964), p. 82Google Scholar.

34 Ibid., p. 69.

35 Ibid., p. 111.

36 Evans, A short history of Laos, p. 179.

37 Halpern, ‘Government, politics, and social structure in Laos’, p. 41.

38 St John, Ronald B., ‘The political economy of Laos: Poor state or poor policy?’, Asian Affairs, 37, 2 (2006): 175–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stuart-Fox, ‘Politics and reform’; Stuart-Fox, ‘The political culture of corruption’.

39 GOL, ‘National growth and poverty eradication strategy’, p. 47.

40 This is due to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's responsibility for rural development and the district's role as the point of policy implementation; ibid., pp. 34–5, 48.

41 Halpern, ‘Government, politics, and social structure in Laos’, pp. 36, 71.

42 Elsewhere, I consider poverty alleviation and social equality as ‘myths of governance’ that dominate official rhetoric, but are contradicted by daily life in the forestry dormitory; Singh, ‘Living within the state’, pp. 149–58.

43 Rigg, ‘Moving lives’, p. 165. A couple of officials also noted that those with money and connections are able to avoid such requirements.

44 Molland, ‘Human trafficking and poverty reduction’, pp. 29, 36, 33.

45 About 88 per cent of all government officials in Laos are ethnic Lao or related Tai ethnic minorities, though they only make up about 66 per cent of the total population; UNPAN, ‘Lao People's Democratic Republic public administration country profile’, p. 5.

46 Mills, Mary B., ‘Migrant labor takes a holiday: Reworking modernity and marginality in contemporary Thailand’, Critique of Anthropology, 19, 1 (1999): 31–51CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

47 See also, Singh, Natural potency and political power.

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56 See, for example, Pholsena, Post-war Laos; and Stuart-Fox, ‘Politics and reform’.

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59 For example, Barney, Keith, ‘Laos and the making of a “relational” resource frontier’, Geographical Journal, 175, 2 (2009): 146–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Jonsson, Hjorleifur, ‘Forest products and peoples: Upland groups, Thai polities, and regional space’, Sojourn, 13, 1 (1998): 1–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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61 Ibid.

62 This is usually a sack of pinewood since it is relatively common in Nakai; small pieces of the resinous wood are used for starting cooking fires. Less common were small pieces of more valued wood such as mai dam (scientific name Aquilaria spp.).

63 Singh, Natural potency and political power.

64 Sheller and Urry, ‘The new mobilities paradigm’, p. 211.

65 See also Singh, ‘Living within the state’.