Location, topography, resources

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  Land/forest: Apart from floodplains, the largest area of level land in the country is located in the province's Xiangkhouang Plateau. The capital city is at an elevation of about 1,000 m.s.l with Kham district situated in a low-laying basin at an elevation of about 600 m.s.l. Of the total area (17,363 km2) only 6% is plain land. Production areas with 35 degree slope cover about 6,500 ha (or 4% of total). Forest area is about 1,209,572 ha (69% of total land in the province) of which 462,214 ha (or 26.4%) are assigned as national, provincial, and district protected forest areas. In addition about 171,441 ha covering 8 villages have been assigned as production forests.
  
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  Biodiversity: Nam Et-Phou Louey is the National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA) which covers a total area of 5,959 km2 extends within XK province apart from the Houaphan, Luang Phabang provinces.  The park consists mainly of mountains and hills, with altitude ranging between 336 and 2257 m above sea level. The area is the source of many rivers. The area has a high level of biodiversity, and a number of endangered species including tiger, leopard, clouded leopard, Asian golden cat, marbled cat, civet, gaur, Sambar deer, white-cheeked gibbon, sun bear, black bear, Asian elephant, dhole, hornbill and three species of otter.
  
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  Water resources: There are several major tributaries of Nam Khong (Mekong) originated from Xiengkhouang province including Nam Ngum, Nam Xan, Nam Ngiep Nam Hang and there are a number of smaller streams flowing through the province before discharging into the Mekong River. In addition, Nam Neun River is one of the rivers flowing through the province to Vietnam. However, during dry season there are water shortage in most rivers and streams causing difficulties to local people and animals.
  

14. Administration, population, culture, and socioeconomic: The province is divided into 07 districts (i.e Paek, Kham, Nonghed, Khoune, Morkmai, Phoukoud, and Phaxay,) and Phonsavan in Paek District is the capital. 2 Districts of Hom and Longxan were assigned to the new established Xaysomboun Province. In early 2014.The total population was 231,254 including 113,809 women.

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  Ethnic Communities (EC): According to provincial data regarding ethnic communities, XK has 3 main ethnic communities Laolum (Tai Dam,Tai Daeng, Phuan), Kmu, Hmong. Tai Dam, Tai Daeng and Tai Phuan belong to the Lao-Tai linguistic family, by far the most significant family in Laos, comprising over 50% of the total population in the province (see Box 1.1).
  

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  Socioeconomic and tourism: Xiengkhouang Province is one of the main maize producing areas of Laos and is famous for tourism development. Cultural: The main centre for trade and tourism is Phonsavan. In the village of Ban Napia near Phonsavan, villagers re-use UXO scrap metal to make spoons to be sold as souvenirs. The war scrap metal is checked for safety beforehand by UXO Lao. This community based project provides valuable income for the villagers. As of 2012, 3 minor accidents involving the UXO metal had been reported. There are many notable landmarks in the province. The tourism department of Laos has listed 63 sites of which 32 are natural sites, 18 are cultural sites, and are 13 historical sites. Plain of Jars archaeological site is the most prominent and popular sites (it has been proposed for listing in UNESCO world heritage site). They are found throughout the province at many locations throughout the provinces in bunches of 300 jars at each location. Archaeological studies have been carried out at many sites, which indicate that these were funerary sites of Bronze and Iron Age (2,000 to 2,500 years old) period megaliths. The nearest location of these urns from Phonsavan is the Jar Site 1, with an area of 25 ha. The largest jar found here is of size 2.5m x 2.5m, while the rest are half this size. One jar has decorations on it. Relics of Wat Piawat Temple Muang Khounis the 14th century ancient Phuan Kingdom capital. It is accessed southeast of Phonsavan. There are also many historic, temples, and cultural sites.
  
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  Issues: Similar to other mountainous provinces, land degradation due to illegal logging, conversion of production land for other purposes, ineffective management of water resources both surface and underground water, water shortage during dry season, water pollution, rive bank erosion, deforestation of watershed, and negative impacts due to mining and hydropower development and operation, while capacity of the province to address these issues has been limited due to limited number of qualified and experienced staff, of operation budget, and of vehicles and other tools/equipment necessary for monitoring and management.
  

3. 
   Houaphan Province (HP)
   

Location