Land is the repository of memory and keeps traces of the past in the absence of a strong written tradition. It is perceived as an open book from which anyone can read and learn about local history: place names, old roads, legends and stories attached to places. For local people, bulldozing the landscape is seen as erasing their history, and disturbing social organisations and traditions. In Cambodia--as in many other countries--land is an extremely important economic resource and asset. Land is livelihood.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE MISSION STATEMENT: The primary purpose of his mission was for the Special Representative to update himself on the human rights situation in Cambodia for his report to the 61st session of the Commission on Human Rights. He paid particular attention to the management of land and natural resources, the continuing problem of impunity, and to corruption which impacts negatively on the realisation of a range of human rights and distorts the allocation of economic resources so as to further exacerbate existing inequalities.

The dramatic increase in migration and settlement in several areas where indigenous people live is leading to a multitude of problems for the original inhabitants. Lowland immigrants are taking advantage of the vulnerable situation of indigenous people, and the absence of regulations, to lay claim to the people’s traditional lands. Illegal land transactions are taking place at an alarming rate without thought of the problems that would result from widespread landlessness among indigenous peoples or the impact this is likely to have on the remaining forested areas.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE INTRODUCTION: My focus in this paper is on the kinds of development pursued by state agencies and large international aid organisations, and specifically, the displacement effects of what I am calling the new land tenure reform agenda. I will illustrate my arguments through an account of the Land and Forest Allocation Programme in Laos.

Land is the most important productive asset in agrarian societies such as Cambodia’s. Throughout Cambodian history, land ownership rights have varied with changes in government. In the period before French colonisation (pre-1863), when all land belonged to the sovereign, people were freely allowed to till unoccupied land and could cultivate as much as they liked. With French colonisation, a property-rights system was introduced in 1884.

El presente material es un breve compendio de las leyes y normativas vigentes, que regulan el acceso a la tierra por parte de la población, con particular detalle en el caso de los campesinos y campesinas. En el caso de las comunidades indígenas, se hará una breve mención a la legislación correspondiente.

El objetivo del presente documento es describir la estructura actual de tenencia de la tierra por parte de los diversos grupos étnicos que conforman la sociedad civil rural de Colombia. El documento aborda la temática desde una perspectiva descriptiva general. La intención es demostrar cómo la demanda de tierras por parte de estos grupos étnicos diversos (indígenas, afros y campesinos) que componen…

Es el caso de Jhon Rios, que habiendo dejado la vida rural, decide volver a su tradición familiar campesina, heredandop unas tierras de su padre e impulsando un proyecto productivo de agricultura orgánica.

La publicación aborda tres aspectos centrales de la problemática actual de la tierra en Paraguay: una aproximación a la demanda existente de tierras por parte de la población campesina e indígena, las políticas  públicas relacionadas al acceso a la tierra, y finalmente, aspectos fundamentales de la legislación vigente en esta materia.

Across the world, ‘green grabbing’ – the appropriation of land and resources for environmental ends – is an emerging process of deep and growing significance. The vigorous debate on ‘land grabbing’ already highlights instances where ‘green’ credentials are called upon to justify appropriations of land for food or fuel – as where large tracts of land are acquired not just for ‘more efficient farming’ or ‘food security’, but also to ‘alleviate pressure on forests’.

Throughout the world, the vast majority of women are faced with conditions of access to land and control of land and natural resources that are unequal to those of men.

Social relations have trivialized the fact that they are entirely in charge of domestic work and the education of children, which prevents them from devoting themselves as much as men to agricultural activities. In the fields, they are the forced laborers of the family and take on the often less valued tasks, considered as part of their domestic obligations. As a result, they generally receive no income.

Partout dans le monde, l’immense majorité des femmes fait face à des conditions d’accès et de contrôle de la terre et des ressources naturelles inégales à celles des hommes.