By Savannakhet Secondary School, Savannakhet

Khammany Xayyahueang
Vilayvanh Duangdokkhet

Laos’s country is in south-east Asia. In my country, we don’t have the sea. In the north, there are a lot of mountains and a quite cold weather, and also a border with China, in the south, there are a lot of waterfalls and a border with Cambodia, in the west there is a border with Thailand, in the north-west there is a border with Myanmar and in the east with Vietnam. The population is 5.690.997 (2005).

Water
The Mekong River is a main river for our country, has many branches and brings up Lao people for many years, it is 4500 km long and flows through Laos 1898 km from Paknamla (Luangnamtha Province) to Ban Vern (Champasak Province). It’s one of the largest rivers in the world : over 50 million people depend on the Mekong for food such as rice, fish and vegetable, so we protect it, for example : we haven’t drop the rubbish and pour bad water or everything into the river. It’s also important for transport, and comfortable for exchanging goods. Konphapheng waterfall is one branch of the Mekong, it’s the biggest waterfall in south-east Asia : 15 m high, 8 m wide, 20 km long and it’s useful for irrigation and dam.

Forest
In Laos PDR (Lao People Democratic Republic), forest is quite plenty. In the middle of the 20th century, the area of forest is about 70% of Laos’s country, all about 17 million hm2. In 1973, the forest is about 47% or 11,2 million hm2 of the country. In average, the forest was destroyed by 2 million hm2 per year. So the government encourages people to protect forest and to plant as many trees as possible. Plantation has been established to produce timber for commercial purpose. This makes profit for the timber companies. It provides employment for local people and helps the Lao economy to grow. It also reduces the need to cut timber from the natural forest. Because the government has policy for protecting the forest so the weather in Laos is balanced.

Wildlife
Laos PDR has a lot of animals, many beautiful unusual animals have become extinct, and many more of them are in danger of becoming extinct for a variety of reasons. One endangered animal is the elephant. Hunters kill elephants for their ivory tusks. Ivory is used to make decoration and jewellery. Tigers are also in danger of becoming extinct. In 1998, it was estimated that there were only about 2000 tigers left in the wild. Hunters kill them for their fur and their bones. In Laos, deer, pheasant and wild peacock are becoming endangered. These animals have been traditionally hunted for centuries with no problems, but now their number is declining. The animals are hunted for their meat, which is popular in Laos. Some restaurants around the country even specialise in serving meat from wild animals. In the south of Laos, there is a rare kind of fresh water dolphin called the Pakha. It is already almost extinct-there are only a few hundred left. Their natural habitat (the Mekong River) has become polluted, and over-fishing has reduced their food supply. The Pakha may disappear forever over the next few decades.

We are students of a bilingual class. Our names are : Viengphone, Vingsamay and Bousavanh. First of all, we would like to present you the nature of our country. Laos is a small country, but it is rich in natural resources. We have a beautiful culture with an ancient tradition and there are plenty of touristy places.
In Laos in the North and the South, there are many forests and mountains, and because of that, our weather is humid. In the morning, there is a fog aroung the mountain like an iceberg and there is water that comes from the top of the mountain in the South and it becomes rivers for example : Nam Neun, Nam Sun, Sebangphay, etc …. These rivers are branches of the Mekong. The Mekong is a river that comes from Tibet (in China) towards the South of Laos in Khonephapheng which is the biggest waterfall in Asia (hight=15m and width=8m). Apart from land resources, there are also underground resources which are numerous, and they are in danger because of capitalism. Due to this reason, they look for these resources to use them and therefore they damage our nature for example : now, it is winter time, but it is weird because this year, it is very hot and it rains a lot, because trees are destroyed by humans. There are also many wastes in the school yard, in the park, the road, the flowers, etc. …. Our country is developing and there are many more plants than before. They bring inconvenient to our atmosphere, and we have more and more transportation means which pollute and we waste oil. But we protect our environment by pushing people to plant trees to replace the ones that were cut and we also clean the touristy places together very often.
In conclusion, we think that nature is very important and necessary for our life. Therefore we must protect it for example : do not destroy the forest, do not litter the ground, collect wastes to recycle them, decrease the number of vehicles which have toxic gas … it is sure that our nature must exist for eternity. Then we invite you to visit Laos. Welcome !