142 Int. J. Global Environmental Issues, Vol. 5, Nos. 3/4, 2005 Copyright © 2005 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Using land-time-budgets to analyse farming systems and poverty alleviation policies in the Lao PDR Clemens M. Grünbühel* and Heinz Schandl Faculty for Interdisciplinary Studies, Institute of Social Ecology, University of Klagenfurt,Vienna, Austria E-mail: clemens.grunbuhel@uni-klu.ac.at E-mail: heinz.schandl@uni-klu.ac.at *Corresponding author Abstract: This paper applies the method of ‘Land-time-budget analysis’ to a rural subsistence community and to the national economy of the Lao PDR. The analysis is conducted to meet two ends: • To identify the community’s/the nation’s resource use profile in terms of land and time use. The analysis identifies biophysical constraints of socio-economic development and trade-offs in resource use patterns. • To contrast the results of the analysis with national poverty alleviation policies and visualise their effects on local communities. Results show that shifting cultivation, a traditional socio-economic strategy in Laos, is doomed for extinction as a practice for securing subsistence. Little, if any, provisions are made by the planners to persuade shifting cultivators to leave their trade and moving to the lowlands and urban areas. Policies are shown to actually decrease the rate of subsistence, which is risk-averse, and increase market participation, which is unstable. Keywords: sustainability of development policy; social metabolism; land-time budget analysis; food security; raising household income. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Grünbühel, C.M. and Schandl, H. (2005) ‘Using land-time-budgets to analyse farming systems and poverty alleviation policies in the Lao PDR’, Int. J. Global Environmental Issues, Vol. 5, Nos. 3/4, pp.142–180. Biographical notes: Clemens M. Grünbühel (PhD in Cultural Anthropology) is Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna. His research interests include Ecological Anthropology, Resource Use Systems, and the Anthropology of Southeast Asia. He has conducted extensive field research in Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. Heinz Schandl (PhD in Sociology) is Head of the Transition Studies Programme at the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna. His research focus has been environmental and social accounting, theoretical and empirical assessments of social metabolism, transitions from agrarian based to industrial socio-economic and metabolic systems, institutional analysis of national resource use systems, Southeast Asia.