I arrived in Vientiane last November from GGGI’s headquarters in Seoul to help lead our work on agriculture and climate change adaptation. It didn’t take long to see the challenge. On my first trip around the provinces, visiting Provincial Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (PAEO) offices in late January, from Bokeo to Luang Prabang to Savannakhet, I was shown a proliferation of small forest fires—often far from the provincial capital and difficult to monitor—and growing clouds of smoke on the roads and in the cities. By March, a thick haze had settled over Vientiane, a common experience I am told but one that is impossible to ignore. Haze, smoke, smog, air pollution- whatever we call it- the challenge is the same: small particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less (PM2.5) in unhealthy concentrations in the air. For me, it was a familiar sight, as Spring in Korea brings dust blown in from the Gobi Desert called ‘hwangsa’, which combines urban and industrial air pollution to create a major public health challenge for the country. Face masks were commonplace in Seoul long before the pandemic, and air-quality monitors now sit on nearly every street corner. Laos faces a comparable burden, but the tools to see it and act on it are only taking shape.

The stakes are not abstract. Outdoor air pollution is linked to roughly 10,000 premature deaths in Lao PDR each year, with national PM2.5 about four times the World Health Organization’s guideline and peaking during the March–April crop-burning season[1]. An ongoing study by the Lao-Oxford Mahosot Hospital Wellcome Trust Research Unit (LOMWRU) has preliminary results showing a clear linkage between high PM2.5 levels and increased hospital admissions for respiratory illness[2]. In May, Lao government colleagues from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE), with support from my team at GGGI, finished preparations for a National Investment Framework (NIF) for Haze-Free Sustainable Land Management (HFSLM)—or, in simpler terms, an investment plan for combating air pollution.  The NIF sets out roughly 1.75 trillion Lao Kip (~USD 80M) in national investments to help farmers, foresters, and local governments address the drivers of haze at the source. The fires in Bokeo and Luang Prabang were not accidents of policy; they were decisions made on the ground, field by field. The vast majority are not being set by bad actors but are rational decisions made by farmers and landowners to farm efficiently, derive economic value from their land, and feed their families and the country. Understanding these decisions and helping people make efficient and sustainable investments in their land is what this NIF is all about. A plan by itself will not cut the smog, but setting targets, agreeing the way forward, and deciding what investments are needed is a critical step toward addressing the issue.

At GGGI, our work on landscapes tends to start with nature and understanding its value—derived from what we call ‘ecosystem services’. We talk a lot about nature-based solutions, because protecting the ecosystem services of forests, wetlands, and farmland is often cheaper and more durable than engineered alternatives. Our NATURA project, restoring the Nong Loup Ian wetland in Vientiane Capital, cuts flood risk while helping to build community enterprises around the restored landscape[3]. But NATURA carries the lesson at the heart of our landscape approach; it works only with real buy-in from the stewards who live and work on the land. The same is true of haze; no framework will change what happens in a field unless people have viable options to minimize haze and generate value from their land sustainably.

This is where adaptation finance and climate technology become inseparable from clean air. According to the Lao PDR 2025 National Adaptation Plan (NAP), seasonal weather patterns are shifting, with more erratic precipitation and longer dry seasons being the most critical changes relevant to land-use sectors in Laos.[4] Change that leaves farmers to manage more risk with less certainty. Burning can be a response to that pressure—it seems like the fastest and most accessible way to clear a field before a narrowing planting window. Change the economics, and you can begin to open avenues to change the practice. Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) is a good example. Instead of keeping paddy continuously flooded, farmers drain and re-flood on a schedule, reading the water table with a simple perforated tube. The periodic aerobic phases let straw incorporated into the soil break down naturally rather than needing to be burned off, while cutting irrigation water use by around 30 percent and methane emissions by 30 to 70 percent, with no yield penalty[5]. The water savings are adaptation in the most practical sense—less exposure to an unreliable dry season. Further, because those methane reductions are measurable, AWD can generate carbon credits under established methodologies[6], giving farmers an additional income stream that cushions them against swings in the rice price—we call this ‘resilience’.

Technologies like this do not scale on their own. Adoption of new technologies and practices is difficult, risky, time-consuming, and not always accessible. We need finance that reaches smallholders, verifiable monitoring, and people willing to farm differently. Over 50 percent of Laos’s population is under , and the haze framework treats young people as partners in land management, not bystanders[7]. Young people across Laos sit on the fire-prevention committees that detect hotspots and help enforce no-burn rules. They are also the readiest to adopt a new practice and trust a digital MRV platform. Working with the education and environment ministries, UNICEF Lao PDR has installed 148 real-time air-quality sensors in schools across every district, using AI to help fill the gaps between them. In Luang Prabang, a youth-led initiative called Breath of Fresh Air used that data and community radio to persuade a neighboring district to cut back on agricultural burning[8]. This program is one of the leading efforts to understand and combat air pollution in Laos and, in my opinion, is starting at the right place, with young people.

Today, rural youth are often treated as high-risk borrowers, locked out of the credit and training a shift to low-burn agriculture requires. Programs to enable and expand access to finance for rural communities in Laos are proliferating, but more action—and frankly more money—is needed. Finance that de-risks investments in data utilization and climate technologies can make young farmers and entrepreneurs more bankable and enable opportunities to steward their lands. Climate finance and adaptation finance have a role to play in growing the pie of investments.

As we at GGGI Lao PDR reflect on the Adaptation Forum launching the Sectoral Adaptation Plan (SAP) in agriculture and prepare to mark International Youth Day, we see a shift toward haze-free agriculture and land management as a shift worth investing in. In Seoul, the monitors are everywhere now. In Lao PDR, the tools and the generation ready to use them are here, and we should not wait for the rains to come and the smoke to clear before investing in both.

By: Michael Bak
Senior Analyst, Adaptation and Agriculture, GGGI Lao PDR

[1]: GGGI, “Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Adaptation in Lao PDR (NATURA) Phase I” (Project LA043, May 2024–Apr 2029). https://gggi.org/project/nature-based-solutions-for-urban-adaptation-in-lao-pdr-natura-phase-i/ | https://naplaos.com/

[2]: Dr. Tamalee Roberts. LOMWRU. July 24^th, 2026.

[3]: GGGI, “Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Adaptation in Lao PDR (NATURA) Phase I” (Project LA043, May 2024–Apr 2029). https://gggi.org/project/nature-based-solutions-for-urban-adaptation-in-lao-pdr-natura-phase-i/

[4]: https://naplaos.com/

[5]: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), “GHG Mitigation in Rice — Alternate Wetting and Drying”: AWD reduces water consumption in rice production by around 30% and methane emissions by 30–70%, without yield penalty. https://ghgmitigation.irri.org/mitigation-technologies/alternate-wetting-and-drying

[6]: Carbon finance for AWD is supported by established methodologies, including Verra VM0042 and the Gold Standard methodology for methane emission reduction in rice cultivation. Revenue potential is indicative and depends on verification, aggregation, and prevailing credit prices.

[7]: Lao People’s Democratic Republic Population 2025 – United Nations Population Fund | United Nations Population Fund

[8]: UNICEF Lao PDR, “Real-Time Air Monitoring Launches in Schools” (2025)