This BMZ comissioned report by GTZ highlights the dramatic increase of land concessions and rising inequality in land distribution in Cambodia. Parts of the study refer to an earlier report by Uch Sophas “Foreign Direct Investment in Land for Biomass Production in Cambodia”. The South-East Asian country Cambodia has an area of 181,035 km2. The Government of Cambodia is adapting its activities to attract FDI, which has lead to a steady increase especially since 2007.

This report for GTZ, published in May 2008,  analyses the potentials and risks of Jatropha plantation. With regards to land issues, it highlights the risks of land degradation and intransparent investment and lists a number of large-scale investors. The study also gives an outlook on the potential for small-scale farmers.

Published by www.jatropha.de

Wars and their aftermaths frequently transform land use and ownership, reshaping 'post-conflict' landscapes through new boundaries, population movements, land reforms and conditions of access. Within a global context of controversial land concessions and farmland acquisitions, we bring to light the continued salience of historical memories of war in the ways land conflicts are being negotiated in Laos.

Le Groupe d’experts de haut niveau (en anglais: High Level Panel of Experts/HLPE) sur la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition a été étabili en 2010 en tant que interface science-politique du Comité sur la Sécurité Alimentaire Mondiale (CSA). Le HLPE vise à améliorer la robustesse de l'élaboration des politiques, en fournissant des analyses indépendantes fondées sur des preuves et des conseils à la demande du CSA.

Ce Cas d'étude d'une concession d'huile de palme au Libéria met en lumière des considérations politiques générales sur ce qui concerne les acquisitions de terres à grande échelle dans les pays du Sudnotamment la nécessité pour les mécanismes formels pour assurer le consentement libre, préalable et éclairé, et les évaluations d'impact environnemental et social rigoureux avant le début des opérations.

Source: Goodplanet.info

The April 2015 edition of Against the Grain -- a report by Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN) on laws and mechanisms in Asia that result in land transfer from independent farmers to larger entities.

The paper aims to identify the rationality of peasant communities and their contribution to rural development in Kampong Thom province. To do so; an interdisciplinary analytical framework addresses the dynamics of land use and land tenure; the strategies of labor force allocation as well as the determinants of land and labor agricultural productivities amongst peasant communities. It rests on details field surveys in two communes located in very distinct agro-ecological settings of Kampong Thom province.

Political dynamics of the global land grab are exemplified in Cambodia, where at least 27 forced evictions took place in 2009, affecting 23,000 people. Evictions of the rural poor are legitimized by the assumption that non-private land is idle, marginal, or degraded and available for capitalist exploitation. This paper: (1) questions the assumption that land is idle; (2) explores whether land grabs can be regulated through a ‘code of conduct’; and (3) examines peasant resistance to land grabs.

Rural areas in Cambodia have been the target of large-scale land acquisitions since the late 1990s. As of March 2012, economic land concessions in Cambodia covered more than 2 million hectares, equivalent to over half of the country’s arable land. In this paper, we discuss the policy narratives and discursive strategies that are employed by various actors to justify and legitimize large-scale land acquisitions. We then analyze the underlying mechanisms of such acquisitions and investments and examine how they are entangled with donor-assisted land use planning efforts.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE INTRODUCTION: This report shows how, contrary to Cambodia’s obligations under international human rights law, those affected by evictions have had no opportunity for genuine participation and consultation beforehand. Information on planned evictions and on resettlement packages has often been incomplete and inaccurate, undermining the right to information of those affected.

As shown in this report, harassment of local activists in Cambodia, including defenders of the right to housing, is widespread. Cambodia’s rich and powerful are increasingly abusing the criminal justice system to silence communities standing up against land concessions or business deals affecting the land they live on or cultivate. Many poor and marginalized communities are living in fear of the institutions created to protect them, in particular the police and the courts. As forced evictions increase, public space for discussing them is shrinking.