The Forestry Legality Compendium comprises all relevant legal provisions and provide a summary analysis on the forestry legal framework, including legislation associated with forest and forestland and the use of forest products, including from production forest, plantations, forest conversion/concession areas and village use forests. It covers planning, harvesting, transportation, processing and trade in unprocessed and semi-processed wood and finished products.

The Forestry Legality Compendium is being used as the foundation for the development of Timber Legality Definition (TLD) as part of Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS) in Lao PDR.

The analysis has been a joint effort by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)-World Bank Cooperative Program, the SUFORD-SU project (Scaling up participatory sustainable forest management project, financed by World Bank and Finland) and the GIZ ProFLEGT project, as part of the Lao EU-FLEGT process (Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade).

Developed in 2015, the Forestry Legality Compendium has the following attributes:

• It focuses on forests and forestland: natural forest, land to be converted for concessions (agriculture, mining) and infrastructure, large investment plantations, smallholder and household plantations, village use forests and trees on farms.
• It is organized along the supply chain of timber and forest products from the source of timber to final market destination, through the following stages:
  • Land Classification, Allocation and Planning
  • Project Approval for Concessions (infrastructure, agriculture, mining) and Plantation Investment
  • Forest management
  • Quota Development, Approval and allocation – including Annual Harvest Planning
  • Harvesting
  • Log Landing 1
  • Log Landing 2
  • Log Landing 3
  • Timber Processing
  • Transport
  • Trading
  • Export
• It is structured on the basis of the Forestry Law No 06/NA 2007 (“Forestry Law”) and follows the hierarchy of legal instruments as indicated in the Law on Making Legislation No 19/NA 2012.
• It identifies administrative roles and responsibilities of the different government institutions and other participants.
• It collated, where available, the current legislative texts and other documents relevant to the timber supply chain.
• It includes, in a supporting document, an analysis of the relevant legislation, identifying gaps, inconsistencies and conflicts.

To see the compilation of legal text, please click HERE.

Below is the list of the individual laws, regulations and orders: