Ensure Environmental Sustainability
 The natural environment is the unequivocal basis of human survival, the foundation for economic and, more importantly, human development. Goal 7 calls for upholding the principles of sustainable development and systematically integrating them into country policies and programs, and mandates reversing and replenishing the loss of environmental resources. The Lao PDR is endowed with a diverse, productive and ecologically unique forest (estimated at 47% of total land area) that is a vital economic resource contributing to both the Lao PDR gross domestic product (GDP) as well as non-agricultural GDP. Some 60% of GDP depends directly on natural resources while rural poor depend to a very large extent on natural resources for their basic livelihoods. Eighty percent of the population live in rural areas and are highly dependent on their local environment for subsistence farming and livelihoods, however the large majority of rural households do not have access to clean water and sanitation facilities. Pioneering shifting cultivation, poorly implemented environmental policies, inequality of access to fertile land, and increasing pressure on land use contribute to the challenges for sustainable futures. Environmental management, is thus one of the core issues in poverty reduction. Key policy elements of the NGPES concern land allocation, elimination of shifting cultivation and resettlement, however they require significant support and strengthening to be achieved. Greater recognition of the importance of biodiversity and protection of natural resources will be needed.
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Lao PDR