Chanrithy Lao

When use creates benefits and pressure: termite mounds in agricultural landscapes

Résumé : Termite mounds are common features of tropical agricultural landscapes, but their agricultural, livelihood, and management roles are rarely studied together. My thesis examines their multifunctional role in the Chrey Bak catchment, Cambodia, through three empirical studies. Using panel data from 992 rice plots over 2021–2023, the first study applies a CRE-IV approach and finds that mound presence is associated with a 12.2% lower yield, while mound-soil amendment is associated with a 12.9% higher yield. The second study, based on 489 households, documents that 40.9% of households consume TM-associated plants, animals, or mushrooms and that 88.5% of consuming households consider them useful or necessary, although no general beneficial relationship with the health outcomes examined is identified. Among households with mound access, plant-user households have the lowest mean Wealth Index across resource-use profiles. Finally, two participatory workshops with 59 farmers highlight multiple benefits as well as farming constraints, while repeated soil extraction raises concerns about mound disappearance over time.

Chanrithy est doctorante à l'iEES Paris. Ses travaux portent sur les services écosystémiques fournis par la biodiversité dans les paysages agricoles du Cambodge. Elle collabore avec Pascal Jouquet (iEES Paris), Martine Audibert et Sébastien Marchand (CERDI) dans le cadre du projet ANR ECOTERM. Ses domaines de recherche comprennent l'économie agricole, la gestion des ressources naturelles, le développement rural et la recherche participative.