The post-opium scenario and rubber in northern Laos: Alternative Western and Chinese models of development

Background: In the past few years rubber planting has spread rapidly throughout northern Laos, especially in Luang Namtha province that borders China. The impetus for this boom has come partly from the spiralling demand for rubber in China (now the world's largest rubber consumer), the high world prices for rubber, and China's promotion of overseas investment through its opium-replacement policy. These economic factors have converged with the desperate need of impoverished highlanders in northern Laos to replace opium as a cash crop as a consequence of a recent opium-eradication campaign and inadequate alternative development. Methods: This paper draws upon ethnographic and agro-economic research in northern Laos and neighbouring regions and reports of international development organisations operating in Laos. Results: The rubber boom in northern Laos represents a fundamental clash between Western drug-oriented alternative development, on the one hand, and China's national economic strategies abroad and investment-led narcotics policy, on the other. Conclusion: China's opium-replacement policy has contributed to a type of unregulated frontier capitalism with socio-economic and environmental effects that threaten the principles and goals of alternative development and even to marginalise the role international development organisations in northern Laos.