Where will Cambodia find enough land for the next generation?
This question is at the center of
a report published by the Cambodian NGO Adhoc on February 14, 2013. Entitled “A
turning point?”, the report explains that the Cambodian government will not be
able to grant as many land concessions as it has done in the past for almost
half of the arable land is now private. The remaining land is made up of
protected areas, islands and cancelled concessions, but exceptions to the law
become the rule.
The gap between the law and the reality
In theory, before being granted
an economic land concession (ELC), a private owner should meet five criteria
regarding land classification, land use planning, impact assessment,
resettlement and compensation (ELC Sub-Decree – Article 4). However, Adhoc
states that “companies often start clearing the land even before sub-decrees
have been issued and contracts have been signed“. For example, in Kratie
province, the TTY company did not consult any of the affected people before
claiming almost 10,000 hectares to grow cassava. According to the report,
“powerful businessmen and officials have been able to benefit from multiple
concessions through companies in which they (or they relatives) have shares or
hold a management position“.
This is a transition to the case
of sugarcane plantations owned by the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) Senator Ly
Yong Phat, who was granted a 10,000-ha concession for his Phnom Penh Sugar Co.
Ltd in Kompong Speu province. As of today, 27 villagers are facing charges
mostly for encroachement on private property. Six days ago (on Feb 9th), as
villagers were demonstrating outside the court to demand the release of a
community activist and submit a petition. However, 40 Royal Cambodian Army
Forces (RCAF) troops were ordered to quash the protest and the commander
threaten to open fire if representatives tried to enter the court to submit the
petition. Recently, local media also reported that children were also exploited
on these concessions owned by the Phnom Penh Sugar Co Ltd.
Protected areas are already at stake
While the report states that the
only land left are protected areas, islands and cancelled concessions, it also
refers to a north-eastern province in Cambodia where protected areas have
already been vastly exploited.
In December 2012, Adhoc received
the information that two Vietnamese companies have been engaging in illegal
logging activities, clearing 200 X 3,000 meters and exporting high-value timber
to Vietnam. One of the companies had surveyed the land and acknowledged that
clearing the land would affect members of the Jarai community leaving in the
area. Some of them were told by the local authorities that they would be
charged $700 to $800 per ha to obtain titles for their land if they did not change
their claim from collective to private land ownership. This classification
forbids the community to exercise its right collectively on its land. Early
January, the Jarai community found that approximately 1,500 graves have been
destroyed – some exhumed – by bulldozers. In exchange, the company agreed to
pay $4,000 as a compensation to the community.
Similarly, more than 6,000 ha
were granted to the CRCK company to grow rubber over four provinces in
Cambodia. This concession encroaches on Prey Lang forest and the company
destroyed large tracts of primary, evergreen forest. And the list is now bigger
with the projected construction of large dams in Cambodia, putting fish stocks
and fisheries at risk when Cambodia is the biggest consumer of freshwater fish
in the world.
“Cambodian courts are strong with
the weak and weak with the strong [...]. The authorities cannot expect to
resolve the land crisis this way,” state the report.
Mixed results from governmental initiatives
Aside from protests and conflicts,
the results of unregulated development are landlessness and poverty related
issues. Adhoc highlights similarities with the 19th century European economic
processes involving rural exodus and the transformation of a large part of the
peasantry into landless wage-laborers, and states that “the granting of
additional concessions despite the moratorium would mean that promises made to
private companies are more important than promises made to the Cambodian
people“.
On paper, there are means of
settling disputes related to land. Victims of land grabbing can seek
intervention from various political or administrative officials and their
bodies at all levels from the villages to the provinces. When the results of
investigations state a dispute over registered land, it must be submitted to
the courts. But in reality, Adhoc reports cases where the victims simply lack
the resources to initiate the proceedings, where significant imbalances of
power between land grabbers and their victims force the latter to accept unfair
solutions and where protests are systematically suppressed.
In 2012, Cambodia’s Prime
Minister Hun Sen adopted two measures to solve the “land crisis”. One is aimed
to stop granting land concessions and review the exisiting ones (Directive
001), and the other is an accelerated land titling program. However, Adhoc
denounces important loopholes. For example, 33 ELCs were granted since May 2012
covering over 208,000 ha since the Directive 001 does not apply to any
concessions that was under consideration as of May 2012. And, while hundreds of
thousands of families have been granted a new land title through the
accelerated program, disputed areas have been left outside the scheme. Adhoc
states that: “people who are the most in need of land titles (to protect
themselves against eviction threats) will therefore not receive them“.
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