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.

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.

En marge de l’Assemblée Générale de la Fédération des Géomètres Francophones (FGF), ONU-Habitat et le Réseau Mondial des Instruments Fonciers (GLTN), a organisé une séance de formation sur la bonne gouvernance foncière.
Cette rencontre technique et scientifique a réuni 130 experts géomètres, du secteur privé, du secteur public, enseignants, étudiants, venus de 13 pays d’Afrique Subsaharienne et d’Europe.

Cette publication est le sommaire du rapport de l'atelier regional d'apprentissage sur la 'Securite de la tenure fonciere et des ressources naturelles'. L'atelier qui s'est tenu a Nairobi, Kenya du 29 au 31 mai a ete conjointement organise par ONU-Habitat/Reseau Mondial des Instruments Fonciers (GLTN) et le Fonds international de developpement agricole (FIDA).

Le Guide de mediation fonciere s'inspire surtout de l'experience pratique de terrain du programme foncier tel que mene par ONU-Habitat a l'Est de la Republique Democratique du Congo, notamment au Nord Kivu, Ituri et Sud Kivu. Il se refere par endroit aux experiences d'autres pays en situation de post-conflits. Ce guide propose des etapes concretes et des outils utilises lors du processus de mediation fonciere. Le role et responsabilites des acteurs et ‘beneficiaires' de la mediation sont aussi decrits. Les principes et fondements d'une bonne mediation sont mis en exergue.

Source: IIED

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.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE CONCLUSION: LMAP has had considerable success in several areas, including the number of titles adjudicated in rural areas, development of legal framework for land management and administration, and the increased institutional capacity of the Ministry of Land. Unfortunately these successes are overshadowed by an increase in landlessness, forced evictions, land-grabbing and widespread tenure insecurity in Cambodia. In large part this is the result of a persistent lack of political will to consistently implement the legal framework that LMAP has developed.