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.

Over the last decade, forests have played an important role in the transition from war to peace in Cambodia. Forest exploitation financed the continuation of war beyond the Cold War and regional dynamics, yet it also stimulated co-operation between conflicting parties. Timber represented a key stake in the rapacious transition from the (benign) socialism of the post-Khmer Rouge period to (exclusionary) capitalism, thereby becoming the most politicized resource of a reconstruction process that has failed to be either as green or as democratic as the international community had hoped.

Op verzoek van de directie Zuidwest van het Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Visserij heeft het LEI onderzoek uitgevoerd naar de ruimtedruk in de Zuidelijke Randstad. Hierbij is zowel gekeken naar de huidige als naar de toekomstige ruimtedruk. Ook wordt inzicht gegeven in de diverse prijsvormings- en verwervingsprocessen van grond. Om de regionale verschillen aan te geven zijn 9 landbouwgebieden in Zuid-Holland onderscheiden.