Fruits of spoil: Laos' forests disappearing as fruit farms flourish
www.mekongeye.com
The country’s improved railway connectivity facilitates fruit exports to China but has also sparked a boom in foreign-owned banana and durian farms, leading to forest clearance

In 2023 alone, Laos lost more than 136,500 hectares of primary forest – an area 3.5 times the size of Singapore – placing it among the countries with the highest rates of deforestation worldwide, according to Global Forest Watch.

A report published in 2020, based on land transaction data from 2014 to 2017, revealed that deforestation occurred in nearly a quarter of the land deals between Laos and foreign investors.

In addition, the government has authorized investors to use more than 110,000 hectares of land within national conservation and protected forest areas, converting them into “production forests” – meaning areas where trees are planted for the purposes of agriculture and logging.

Quite doomer tbh sadness

Deforestation for banana and durian plantations to export to China. The article mentioned the companies create jobs and roads but I'm not sure it is enough to justify this destruction of the environment.