Chanthavone Phomphakdy

Chanthavone Phomphakdy is a PhD researcher at the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, where he pursues a doctorate in Geography and sustainable development. Through his work with the Land for Life in Laos (LFL) project, he supports sustainable land governance by producing scientific evidence that can strengthen real-world decision-making.

At the heart of Chanthavone’s research is a central question: how do we value what nature provides—and what gets overlooked when value is defined too narrowly? He focuses on the valuation of ecosystem services, deliberately distinguishing between utilitarian values (such as food, income, and livelihoods), cultural values (including identity, spiritual practices, and community relationships to landscapes like sacred forests), and intrinsic values (the worth of ecosystems beyond human use). This approach allows him to highlight benefits that are often missed in conventional economic assessments, especially in contexts where traditional beliefs and stewardship practices have long helped protect forests and other natural resources.

Chanthavone’s work is especially timely in Laos, where rapid economic growth and poverty reduction have been accompanied by increasing pressure on land and ecosystems from resource-intensive sectors such as hydropower, mining, and large-scale agricultural monocultures. By combining rigorous scientific methods with local knowledge and community perspectives, he helps make visible the full spectrum of ecosystem services—material, cultural, and inherent—so that policies and land-use decisions can better balance development goals with long-term ecological and social sustainability.