Cambodia

Land lies at the center of debates about Cambodia’s socio-economic development. Despite urbanization tendencies, agriculture remains the main source of income for over three quarter of the population. For farmers in the fertile lowlands, private land ownership rights have enabled recovery of their livelihoods after decades of violent conflict. Meanwhile, the resource-rich uplands and border areas have been the site of large-scale land acquisitions for cash crop production and extractive industries.

Socio-economic indicators browse all

17,652,000 ha

3,869.5 USD

16,249,798

23.4 %

Land-related indicators browse all

31.5 %

52.1 %

322,000 ha

8.6 %

2,243,679 ha

More on this country

Is Cambodia’s thirst for sand putting communities and the Mekong at risk?

30 July 2021

The Cambodian government is embarking on a number of ambitious development projects, which critics say come at the expense of the environment and people’s livelihoods Main photo: Sophea Soung has been cultivating vegetables – such as this water mimosa – in Phnom Penh’s Tompoun Lake for over a…

Session Summaries: Mekong Regional Land Forum 2021

1 June 2021

On 26-27 May this year, the 3rd Mekong Land Forum will be held online. Mekong Regional Land Governance (MRLG) is hosting the Forum, for which Land Portal is providing technical support. The Forum will provide in-depth discussion and debate into land tenure security and community resource…

Casinos, condos and sugar cane: How a Cambodian national park is being sold down the river

4 May 2021

Botum Sakor National Park in southern Cambodia has lost at least 30,000 hectares of forest over the past three decades. Decades of environmental degradation go back to the late 1990s when the Cambodian government began handing out economic land concessions for the development of commercial…

Cambodia

projects

Influencing for Sustainable Natural Resources Governance

Donors: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Land Allocation for Social and Economic Development

Donors: World Bank Group

Support to Community Forestry and Fishery

Value: $2,200,000.00

Donors: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

Contribution to the protection of land rights II

Value: $6,240,000.00

Donors: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Improvement of livelihoods and food security of former landless households in Cambodia

Value: $1,100,000.00

Donors: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Improvement of food security of former landless households in Cambodia

Value: $1,790,000.00

Donors: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Customary practices undermine principles of joint ownership in male-headed households and gender-biased norms often prevent women from exercising or claiming their rights to the land.

Critical Insights on the Land Governance Orthodoxy

2 July 2021

This panel took a critical look at the land governance orthodoxy that has consolidated on the heels of the financial crisis and outcry over "global land grabs" at the end of the 2000s. The panel began with a presentation on the “theory of change” guiding land governance interventions, profiling how…