Laos has an estimated forest cover of 9.5 million hectares or 40.29% of the land area in 2010 based on a rapid assessment (DOF, 2011a). This is only slightly lower than the forest cover in 2002, which was 9.8 million hectares or 41.5% of the land area (DOF, 2005). However, ongoing detailed forest cover assessments are expected to provide more accurate forest cover estimates for 2010. Forest cover declined rapidly from 1992 to 2002 at the rate of 134,000 hectares per annum (~ 1.2-1.3% p.a.). Forest quality also deteriorated with dense forest declining from 29% in 1992 to 8.2% in 2002, and open forest increasing from 16% to 24.5%. Annual emissions from deforestation and degradation are estimated to be around 51 million tonnes of CO₂ (DOF, 2010). The main drivers of...