Issues and Impacts of Private Land Titling in Indigenous Communities: A Case Study in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia

In June 2012, the Cambodian Government issued a policy directing the private titling of all plots throughout the country’s rural areas. In this study conducted in collaboration with seven NGOs throughout 79 indigenous villages in Ratanakiri Province, indigenous leaders reported negative impacts of the policy including loss of communal land, lack of transparency and information, and coercion to privatize land. If the policy continues to be carried out over indigenous areas in its current form, it will exacerbate internal and external divisions in communities and conflicts with companies, complicate the legal rights framework, and ultimately cause loss of land and livelihoods for the indigenous people of Cambodia.