In 2006, IUCN Lao PDR undertook a series of extensive strategic planning exercises, consisting of critical internal reflection and extensive external consultation with partners and stakeholders. The resulting programme of refreshed thinking for 2007 – 2011 is founded on three basic operational principles:

1. Long-term partnerships
2. Knowledge, Empowerment and Governance
3. Responsiveness

Through this process, IUCN Lao PDR has developed a set of clear directions to address key challenges – including undervalued resources, increasing pressures on these resources and insufficient governance structures to effectively meet these rising challenges – and provide necessary support to Lao PDR partners. Guided by a livelihoods approach to conservation, a commitment to the poorest groups in society and the ecosystems upon which they depend, the 2007 – 2011 strategy consists of four core programme themes:

1. Protected Areas
2. Governance
3. Agrobiodiversity
4. Nam: Water, wetlands & watersheds

IUCN Lao PDR believes that a key to successfully implementing its livelihoods approach is to pay specific attention to the areas of substantive and strategic overlap between the four themes of Protected Areas, Agrobiodiversity and Nam: water, wetlands & watersheds. These mutually reinforcing domains, considered within the shared context of Governance, provide a rich opportunity to articulate the policy, technical and procedural paths to desired conservation and development outcomes.