2.1 Landscape context
The study was conducted in 12 areas across Laos (Figure 1), in two
contrasting landscape contexts (Table 1). Five sampling locations
correspond to relatively undisturbed natural forests, which have long
been recognized for their outstanding biodiversity. There, the
traditional human activity consists mainly of logging, food searching,
and hunting. However, natural forests have recently been facing land-use
intensification pressures, due to extremely rapid economic growth
leading to the development of multiple aspects of human activities,
including the expansion of agricultural lands. Part of the natural
forest in the study areas has been influenced by the construction of a
railroad going from the north to the center of Laos, which will be part
of a larger railway linking China to Thailand through Laos.
In contrast, seven sampling locations were located in plantations. This
type of landscape structure had different agricultural and deforestation
histories and is mostly dedicated to rubber and eucalyptus plantations,
which have increased exponentially in the country. Part of the present
study was undertaken on a large rubber plantation in northern Laos (site
4L and 4H), which covered 33,000 ha in 2016 and was occupied by various
ethnic groups (Kusakabe and Chanthoumphone, 2021); more rubber
plantation areas now extend to the center and to the south. Most of the
deforestation happened several years before sampling, resulting in a
single unfragmented rubber plantation. In addition, sampling also
occurred in a eucalyptus plantation planted with a monocrop of
eucalyptus trees in rows, the natural forest around plantations being
used for extensive livestock and rice paddy field (site 1W, 1P, 2, and
3). Furthermore, different agricultural activities such as coffee,
cabbage, strawberry farms, and grassland mixed with rice paddy fields
were covered in the present study across the country (Figure 1).