Abstract:
Cambodia is endowed with relatively abundant natural resources. The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) holds about 75-80 per cent of the country’s territory under the status of ‘state land’ (USAID 2011). The 2001 Land Law allows the RGC to reclassify ‘state public land’ into ‘state private land’ as a precondition to allocate concessions for various purposes. An increasing share of state private land has been allocated as economic land concessions (ELCs) to Cambodian business tycoons, political elites and foreign investors since the mid-2000s, mostly for agro-industrial plantations and – more recently – tourism developments. As a consequence, land disputes have shown an increasing trend from the 2000s onwards. The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights recorded a total of 1,162 land conflicts – each involving at least five households – in the 10 years from 2004 to 2013 (C Oldenburg, personal communication). Most of the cases occurred in areas with strong economic growth, were about agricultural land and involved powerful foreign investors, domestic political and economic elites and local authorities. According to data collated by the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), more than 770,000 Cambodians – equal to almost 6 per cent of the population – have been affected by land grabs and resulting conflicts over natural resources (ADHOC 2014). Military and police forces have played an increasingly prominent role in land disputes and land evictions, siding with company owners and national, provincial and district authorities (Neef et al. 2013).