"Wildlife of Laos The wildlife of Laos encompasses the animals and plants found in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, a landlocked country in southeastern Asia. Part of the country is mountainous and much of it is still clad in tropical broadleaf forest. It has a great variety of animal and plant species. Laos is a land-locked country located in southeastern Asia. The northern part is mountainous, with the Luang Prabang Range separating the northwestern part of the country from Thailand. The Xiangkhoang Plateau separates these mountains from the Annamite Range, a chain of mountains which run parallel with the Vietnamese"
"land area. Only about 4% of the total land area is classified as arable. The forested land area has declined significantly since the 1970s as a result of commercial logging and expanded swidden, or slash-and-burn, farming. Laos has a tropical monsoon climate, with a pronounced rainy season from May through October, a cool dry season from November through February, and a hot dry season in March and April. Generally, monsoons occur at the same time across the country, although that time may vary significantly from one year to the next. Rainfall varies regionally, with the highest amounts— annually—recorded on the"
"Agriculture in Laos At least 5 million hectares of Laos's total land area of 23,680,000 hectares are suitable for cultivation (about 21 percent). 17 percent of this land area (between 850,000 and 900,000 hectares) is actually cultivated, less than 4 percent of the total area. Rice accounted for about 80 percent of cultivated land during the 1989-90 growing season, including 422,000 hectares of lowland wet rice and 223,0 hectares of upland rice. This demonstrates that although there is interplanting of upland crops and fish are found in fields, irrigated rice agriculture remains basically a monoculture system despite government efforts to"
"Geography of Laos Laos is an independent republic, and a landlocked nation in Southeast Asia, northeast of Thailand, west of Vietnam. It covers 236,800 square kilometers in the center of the Southeast Asian peninsula and it is surrounded by Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and Vietnam. About seventy percent of its geographic area is made up of mountain ranges, highlands, plateaux, and rivers cut through. Its location has often made it a buffer between more powerful neighboring states, as well as a crossroads for trade and communication. Migration and international conflict have contributed to the present"
"and mung beans (by 25 percent). Despite increasing agricultural output, Laos an importer of food, is still heavily dependent on food aid. Agriculture in Laos At least 5 million hectares of Laos's total land area of 23,680,000 hectares are suitable for cultivation (about 21 percent). 17 percent of this land area (between 850,000 and 900,000 hectares) is actually cultivated, less than 4 percent of the total area. Rice accounted for about 80 percent of cultivated land during the 1989-90 growing season, including 422,000 hectares of lowland wet rice and 223,0 hectares of upland rice. This demonstrates that although there is"
"Savannakhet, and Pakse. In 1993 the Laos government set aside 21 percent of the nation's land area for habitat conservation preservation. The country is one of four in the opium poppy growing region known as the ""Golden Triangle"". According to the October 2007 UNODC fact book ""Opium Poppy Cultivation in South East Asia"", the poppy cultivation area was , down from in 2006. Laos can be considered to consist of three geographical areas: north, central, and south. Laos has a mostly tropical savanna climate. A tropical monsoon and humid sub-tropical climate also occurs in places. Laos is divided into 17"
"largest public festival is the four-day celebration of Lao New Year or ""Pi Mai"". Culture of Laos Laos developed its culture and customs as the inland crossroads of trade and migration in Southeast Asia over millennia. As of 2012 Laos has a population of roughly 6.4 million spread over 236,800 km (91,400 sq miles), yielding one of the lowest population densities in Asia. Yet the country of Laos has an official count of over forty-seven ethnicities divided into 149 sub-groups and 80 different languages. The Lao Loum have throughout the country’s history comprised the ethnic and linguistic majority. In Southeast"
"and basaltic soils in the Bolovens Plateau. Plant Life and Animals The north of Laos has tropical rain forests with broader leaved evergreens and monsoon forests of mixed evergreen and in the south is filled with deciduous trees. In the monsoon forest the ground is covered with tall, coarse grass. The trees mostly only reach their secondary growth. Typically there is an abundance of bamboo, scrub, and wild banana. Laos is also home to hundreds of species of orchids and palms. Forests and fields serve as support for wildlife. Wildlife in Laos includes nearly 200 species of mammals, about the"
"Culture of Laos Laos developed its culture and customs as the inland crossroads of trade and migration in Southeast Asia over millennia. As of 2012 Laos has a population of roughly 6.4 million spread over 236,800 km (91,400 sq miles), yielding one of the lowest population densities in Asia. Yet the country of Laos has an official count of over forty-seven ethnicities divided into 149 sub-groups and 80 different languages. The Lao Loum have throughout the country’s history comprised the ethnic and linguistic majority. In Southeast Asia, traditional Lao culture is considered one of the Indic cultures (along with Burma,"
"2 December 2015, Laos celebrated its 40th anniversary of the establishment of the republic. Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, and it lies mostly between latitudes 14° and 23°N (a small area is south of 14°), and longitudes 100° and 108°E. Its thickly forested landscape consists mostly of rugged mountains, the highest of which is Phou Bia at , with some plains and plateaus. The Mekong River forms a large part of the western boundary with Thailand, whereas the mountains of the Annamite Range form most of the eastern border with Vietnam and the Luang Prabang Range"
"55 percent of the population, mostly in the lowlands. Mon-Khmer groups, the Hmong and other indigenous hill tribes, accounting for 45 percent of the population, live in the foothills and mountains. Laos's ambitious strategies for development are based on generating electricity from its rivers and selling the power to its neighbours, namely Thailand, China and Vietnam, as well as its initiative to become a ""land-linked"" nation, shown by the planning of four new railways connecting Laos to its neighbours. Laos has been referred to as one of East Asia and Pacific's Fastest Growing Economies by the World Bank, with annual"
"Laos Laos (, ; , ""Lāo"" ), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (; ), commonly referred to by its colloquial name of Muang Lao (Lao: ເມືອງລາວ, ""Muang Lao""), is a socialist state and the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia at the heart of the Indochinese peninsula, bordered by Myanmar (Burma) and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southwest, and Thailand to the west and southwest. Present-day Laos traces its historic and cultural identity to the kingdom of Lan Xang Hom Khao (Kingdom of a Million Elephants Under the White Parasol), which existed for"
"largest area of level land in the country is located in the province's Xiangkhouang Plateau. This area is characterized by rolling hills and grassland whose altitude averages . The country's highest peak, Phou Bia (), rises at the southern side of the plateau. Nam Et-Phou Louey is a National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA) in the province which covers a total area of 5,959 km2, and overlaps into Houaphan and Luang Prabang provinces. Xiangkhouang Province is one of the main maize producing areas of Laos. It was heavily bombed during the Vietnam War era. The Plain of Jars site has been"
"Religion in Laos Laos has an area of and contains a population of approximately 6.6 million. Almost all ethnic or ""lowland"" Lao (Lao Loum and Lao Lom) are followers of Theravada Buddhism; however, they constitute only 40-50% of the population. The remainder of the population belongs to at least 48 distinct ethnic minority groups. Most of these ethnic groups (30%) are practitioners of Laotian folk religion, with beliefs that vary greatly among groups. Laotian folk religion is predominant among most Lao Theung, Lao Sung, the Sino-Thai groups, such as the Thai Dam and Thai Daeng, as well as among Mon-Khmer"
"from Laos to Vietnam every year, with most of the furniture eventually exported to western countries by the VPA military-owned companies. A 1992 government survey indicated that forests occupied about 48 percent of Laos's land area. Forest coverage decreased to 41 percent in a 2002 survey. Lao authorities have said that, in reality, forest coverage might be no more than 35 percent because of development projects such as dams, on top of the losses to illegal logging. Most of the deforestation during the 1980s stemmed from the northern region in which the poor destroyed about 300,000 hectares annually. A study"
"coast, and mark the easternmost boundary of the country. The west of the country is mostly bounded by the broad Mekong River, and the south is the Bolaven Plateau at some above sea level. Laos lies in the monsoon belt and experiences a rainy seasons between May and November when much rain falls, and a dry season without rain from December to April. This results in a natural forest cover of deciduous, broadleaf trees, that lose their leaves during the dry season. There is a distinct rainy season from May to November, followed by a dry season from December to"
"these groups and lowland Lao has been mostly confined to trading. Laos shares its short—only 541 kilometres—southern border with Cambodia, and ancient Khmer ruins at Wat Pho and other southern locations attest to the long history of contact between the Lao and the Khmer. In the north, the country is bounded by a mountainous 423-kilometre border with China and shares the 235-kilometre-long Mekong River border with Myanmar. The topography of Laos is largely mountainous, with the Annamite Range in the northeast and east and the Luang Prabang Range in the northwest, among other ranges typically characterized by steep terrain. Elevations"
"Military Regions of Laos Beginning in 1955, the Kingdom of Laos was divided into five Military Regions (MR), roughly corresponding to the areas of the country's 13 provinces. The Military Regions were necessitated by the poor lines of communication within the country. The Military Districts were the basis of a culture of warlordism in the Royal Lao Armed Forces (FAR) high command, with most MR Commanders running their zones like private fiefdoms. Laos covers approximately 235,000 square kilometers (91,000 square miles). In the early 1950s, there were few means of transportation available in the Kingdom of Laos. Travelling by riverboat"
"of the river. The mountainous landscape means that only 16 percent of the country is farmed under lowland terrace or upland shifting cultivation. With upland shifting agriculture (slash and burn), soils recover within 10 to 20 years but the vegetation does not. Shifting cultivation is common in the uplands of northern Laos and is reported to account for as much as 27 percent of the total land under rice cultivation. As elsewhere in the basin, forest cover has been steadily reduced during the last three decades by shifting agriculture and permanent agriculture. The cumulative impacts of these activities on the"
"a median age of 21.6 years. Laos's population was estimated at /1e6 round 1 million in , dispersed unevenly across the country. Most people live in valleys of the Mekong River and its tributaries. Vientiane prefecture, the capital and largest city, had about 740,010 residents in 2008. The country's population density was 27/km. The people of Laos are often considered by their altitudinal distribution (lowlands, midlands and upper high lands) as this approximates ethnic groups. More than half of the nation's population is ethnic Lao—the principal lowland inhabitants, and the politically and culturally dominant people of Laos. The Lao belong"
"and Laos with peaks ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 m, the summit of which is peak Phi Co Pi with the height of 2,017 m. In the east of the province are lower hills and then several narrow plains and river deltas. The seaside sand dunes belt is a natural dam that protects the land from the ocean tides. The provincial land area is 8,037.9 km and divided as follows: Sand area accounts for 5.9% of the land, and alluvial soil accounts for only 2.8% of the land. The province's east coastline is 116.04 km long and the western borderline"
"Laos. The province boasts of silt deposited in each flood, this makes the region conducive to agriculture and fishing. It is part of what is called the ""great green belt"" of Cambodia. The main crop of rice and has the largest area devoted to rice in the country, contributing about 10% in the national crop and is among those that emerge each year the largest surplus. Tobacco, mung beans, cane sugar, palm sugar, cassava, sesame and fruits such as coconuts, mangoes and cashews are grown in Prey Veng. Rubber trees have played an important economic role in the past, but"
"Laos. Men often come to towns to work as coolies. In addition to farming, Lao Theung engage in hunting and gathering in the forests surrounding the village. Men shoot or trap small game and occasionally a wild pig or deer. Both women and men regularly collect bamboo and rattan sprouts, wild vegetables, mushrooms, tubers, and medicinal plants, the latter marketed by women. Fishing is common for some groups but seldom practiced by others, perhaps as a consequence of living in an upland environment distant from large streams. Damrong Tayanin, an anthropologist of Kammu origin, has described a pattern of land"
"GDP growth averaging 7.8% for the past decade. The English word ""Laos"" was coined by the French, who united the three Lao kingdoms in French Indochina in 1893 and named the country as the plural of the dominant and most common ethnic group, which are the Lao people. In the Lao language, the country's name is ""Muang Lao"" () or ""Pathet Lao"" (), both literally mean ""Lao Country"". An ancient human skull was recovered from the Tam Pa Ling Cave in the Annamite Mountains in northern Laos; the skull is at least 46,000 years old, making it the oldest modern"
"trees, bamboos, shrubs and grasses. Near the streams are bamboo thickets; Laos is rich with species of bamboo, and where timber has been extracted from primary forest, bamboos tend to dominate in the new-growth secondary forest. In wetter, upland regions of northern Laos, ""Fujian cypress"" is dominant, and supports a dense ground cover of mosses and ferns. There is tropical rainforest in the Annamite Mountains because the rainfall is higher and more evenly distributed throughout the year. The dominant species here are ""Elaeocarpus"", ""Podocarpus"", oaks, magnolias, camellias and laurels, and many of these are endemic to this mountain range. In"
"upland slash-and-burn farming villages (""ban"") to lowland locations suitable for paddy rice cultivation had significant effects on upland villages. Timber resources have been commercially exploited on a small scale since the colonial period and are an important source of foreign exchange. In 1988 wood products accounted for more than one-half of all export earnings. In 1992 timber and wood products were almost one-third of the total principal exports. In the 1950s, forests covered 70 percent of the land area in Laos. By 1992, according to government estimates, forest coverage had decreased by nearly one-third, to just 47 percent of total"
"Thailand and Cambodia). Laos is geographically isolated and mountainous, bounded by the Annamite Range in the east, forming a traditional political and cultural boundary with Vietnam (a more Chinese influenced Sinitic culture). Much of the western borders of Laos are formed by the Mekong River which provided the major means of inland trade despite limited navigability along the river’s length. Prior to the 20th century Lao principalities and the Kingdom of Lan Xang extended to the Sipsong Panna (China), Sipsong Chau Tai (Vietnam), and Khorat Plateau (today the northeast of Thailand) where the river was used as a transportation artery"
"Lao (official), French, English, Vietnamese, and various ethnic languages Literacy: <br>""definition:"" age 15 and over can read and write <br>""total population:"" 73% <br>""male:"" 83% <br>""female:"" 63% (2005 est.) Demographics of Laos This article is about the demographic features of the population of Laos, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Laos' population was estimated at about /1e6 round 2 million in , dispersed unevenly across the country. Most people live in valleys of the Mekong River and its tributaries. Vientiane Prefecture, which includes Vientiane, the capital and"
"8.2 °C); the average temperatures for April, usually the hottest month, are, Luang Prabang 28.1 °C (maximum 44.8 °C), Vientiane 39.4 °C). Temperature does vary according to the altitude, there is an average drop of 1.7 °C for every 1000 feet (or 300 meters). Temperatures in the upland plateux and in the mountains are considered lower than on the plains around Vientiane. Agriculture in Laos is the most important sector of the economy. Five million out of 23,680,000 hectares of Laos's total land area is suitable for cultivation, and seventeen percent of the land area, between 850,000 and 900,000 hectares,"
"Laotian territory and gave the territory its modern-day name of Laos. Following Siam's acceptance of the ultimatum, to cede the lands east of the Mekong including its islands, the Protectorate of Laos was officially established and the administrative capital moved from Luang Prabang to Vientiane. However, Luang Prabang remained the seat of the royal family, whose power was reduced to figureheads while the actual power was transferred over to French officials including the vice consulate and Resident-General. In January 1896, France and the United Kingdom signed an accord recognising the border between French Laos and British Burma. In 1898, Laos"
"Demographics of Laos This article is about the demographic features of the population of Laos, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Laos' population was estimated at about /1e6 round 2 million in , dispersed unevenly across the country. Most people live in valleys of the Mekong River and its tributaries. Vientiane Prefecture, which includes Vientiane, the capital and largest city of the country, had about 569,000 residents in 1999. The country's population density is 23.4/km. In March 2005, the total population was 5.62 million (2.82 million"
"forests. These include lakes and ponds, some permanent and some temporary, swamps, and seasonally-flooded grasslands, and these and the surrounding woodlands support a biodiverse community. Much of Laos still retains its natural tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, and some areas consist of secondary forests growing where timber has been extracted from the primary forest. In general, the upper parts of the canopy are dominated by the cauliflower-like crowns of tall dipterocarps with trunks devoid of branches. The middle levels consist of other hardwood trees including teak, mahogany, ""Heritiera javanica"", ""Tetrameles nudiflora"", ""Ficus"" and ""Pterocarpus"". The understorey consists of smaller"
"billion) are the second and third largest investors respectively. Subsistence agriculture still accounts for half of the GDP and provides 80 percent of employment. Only 4.01 percent of the country is arable land, and a mere 0.34 percent used as permanent crop land, the lowest percentage in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Rice dominates agriculture, with about 80 percent of the arable land area used for growing rice. Approximately 77 percent of Lao farm households are self-sufficient in rice. Through the development, release and widespread adoption of improved rice varieties, and through economic reforms, production has increased by an annual rate"