Land Rights of

Indigenous People in
Cambodia

By: Raingsey PEN

Land and Livelihoods Programme
Manager
NGO Forum on Cambodia
October 19th , 2009
Outline:
 Indigenous People in Cambodia and
Issue facing
 Legal procedure supports IP rights
 Possible solution in dealing with IP
issue
 NGOF approaches
 Indigenous People in
Cambodia
 Indigenous minority communities in
Cambodia are located in 15
different provinces.
 According to the 1998 Population
Census, 17 different indigenous
ethnic minority groups were
identified numbering about 1.5% of
the total population.
 People living in small rural villages
and have their own languages.
 They are mostly animist, with the
belief that the environment is
inhabited with spirits influence on
people’s daily live.
 IP in Cambodia (cont.)
 Livelihood depends mainly
on shifting cultivation and
collecting of the forest
products since very long.
 Shifting agriculture is still
conducting the traditional
manner by doing slash and
burn forest.
 Traditional ceremonies are
conducted during the time
to make sure that they are
follow the rule of appeasing
to the spirit and they belief
the spirit will help to get
high yield of rice harvest.
 Issues facing
Conflict in Development
 Major infrastructural development initiative –
international transportation links to border, hydro-
electricity, foreign investment for agro-industrial
plantation and mineral exploitation…
 Conflicts in development – logging and land
concession companies
 Conflicts in accessing the natural resources
 Discouragement of customary practices
 Through this transformation, there are many conflicts
were happened – conflict between villagers, neighboring
communities, villager and outsiders.
 Generally, conflicts were happened of the limited
dialogue between stakeholders and the communities.
 Issues facing (cont.)
Eliminating Shifting Cultivation
 Currently, land and forest resources are being
critically and contested.
 Government tend to exclude local people from
access to natural resource through granting
land and forest concession.
 During this time, people faced difficulties
practicing traditional methods of agriculture,
with much competition for resource utilization
and encroachment of land.
 As above, people have changed their way of
life by hired by wealthy families to clear new
land or work on cashew nut farm.
 Issues facing (cont.)
Logging and Land Concession
 Forest cover had steadily declined.
 Villagers attributed the loss of timber
resources mainly to the logging
operations and illegal logging
 Land grabbing and encroachment is
rapidly happened in the area
 Conflicts resulting from granting of
logging and land concession to various
companies.
 International IP’s rights
situation
 International Convention on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights
 International Convention on Civil and Political
Rights
 International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination
 ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal
Peoples
 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
 Formal policies on IP by multi and bi-lateral
development agencies: EU, UNDP, World Bank,
Asian Development Bank, Danida, BMZ-Germany,
etc…
 Cambodia legal & Policy
Framework
 Cambodia Constitution Law (1993)
 Land Law (2001)
 Forestry Law (2002)
 Strategy of Land Policy Framework
(2002)
 NSDP extension (2006-2012)
 IP sub-decree (adopted in 2008)
 Legal Framework for Collective
Titling
 2001 Land Law, Chapter 3, Part 2 (Art. 23-
28): indigenous communities be granted
communal ownership rights to their lands
 Art. 23 mentions a law on communities to
determine the legal status of indigenous
communities
 Chap. 10 of the Land policy framework
calls for an implementing sub-decree of the
2001 Land Law to enable communal titling
Provisions of the 2001 Land
Law
 Definition of indigenous community and criteria for
membership (Art. 23-24)
 Protection of rights of “groups actually existing at
present” (Art. 23)
 Land eligible to be included in the collective title:
residential, traditional agriculture, lands necessary for
shifting cultivation (Art. 25)
 Measurement and demarcation of boundaries are
asserted by the communities in agreement with their
neighbors (Art. 25)
 Indigenous communities hold private ownership rights to
state private and state public land but cannot dispose of
the latter (Art. 26)
 Indigenous communities may transfer individual
ownership rights to members of the community (Art. 27)
 Possible solutions
For Gov’t:
 Government should give opportunity to
ethnic minorities to full participation in
development process.
 Recognized and legitimized customary
practices, community rights for control,
utilization of natural resources.
 Development planer and policy-maker
should play the supporting role and
consult the ethnic minorities to find the
alternative for development.
 Possible solutions (cont.)
For NGOs:
 NGOs should develop a strategy for working effectively with
Gov’t ministries responsible for the protection and use of
natural resources with the aim of gaining an understanding
of future resource use plans.
 NGOs should initiate discussions with Gov’t ministries
responsible for basic service delivery in an attempt to
understand what plans are on foot and what opportunities
exist to work closely with government to address the lack of
access to education and health services.
 NGOs to investigate and where appropriate initiate with
NGOs working in the area to lobby International and local
companies to be partners in development activities. The
objective of this initiative is to encourage companies to
contribute to sustainable development where they derive a
benefit.
 NGOF approaches
1. Coordinate NGO networks
- Identify common issues, share
experiences & develop coordinated
advocacy strategies
1. Support advocacy activities of
indigenous peoples and forest
dependent communities
- Legal advice, facilitate meetings with
decision-makers, investigate and advocate
on cases, lobby donors and Government
 NGOF approaches (cont.)
3. Enable NGOs and communities to
engage in policy dialogue with
Government and Donors
- Membership of national policy
institutions, public forums, public
consultations on policies
3. Conduct research in support of
advocacy and policy-dialogue
objectives
Thanks for your attention!