Ask any Cambodian what s/he considers to be the foundation of society and life in Cambodia and the answer is likely to be “land.” Land is livelihood. But equally, land is valued as an emblem of rootedness, belonging and stability, and is widely regarded as the very basis of social organisation in the country. A family's attachment to its piece of land has particular significance in a society that over the past hundred years has hurtled through successive periods of civil conflict, war, massive displacement, forced collectivisation and genocide, and finally into an unregulated, capitalist, market economy.
Over 80% the country's population lives in rural areas. Cambodia's terrain allows for both sedentary and shifting (swidden)
cultivation; whatever the mode of cultivation, rural communities rely greatly on surrounding woodlands, forests and water bodies for food and non-timber forest products for household use and income. The poorest in any village are usually those without land and in fact, not having agricultural land or the means to purchase land can be considered a reliable indicator of poverty in Cambodia.
In the 1960-s, it was estimated that 73 % of Cambodia's territory was covered with forests and rural communities could clear
forests as needed to bring more land under cultivation without significant ecological impacts. Land was not traded, there were no formalised land markets and those who actually used the land also defined ownership and control. In the 1990-s, Cambodia was catapulted into a free market economy, private property regimes started to define land use and ownership, and an unregulated land market started to burgeon.
Landlessness and inequalities in land holdings are growing rapidly in Cambodia among both rural and urban communities.
Landlessness is higher among female headed households compared to male headed households. Added to this are growing
numbers of “near landless,” i.e., those with plots of land too small to eke a living out of. Since over a decade, large tracts of land in Cambodia have been given away to private companies for economic land concessions –contractual agreements between the government and private entities for commercial exploitation of land, mainly for commercial/industrial forestry and agriculture, mining, oil exploration, fishing and tourism. Although economic concessions originated in the late 19th century under French colonial rule (mostly for rubber plantations), their recent resurgence was in the early 1990-s, when the Royal Cambodian Government (RCG) started to grant forest and land concessions to private companies ostensibly to stimulate private enterprise, contribute to state revenues and reduce poverty in rural areas. It is estimated that by the end of the 1990-s, more than a third of Cambodia's rural communities were alienated from their lands because of land and forest concessions.
Economic concessions include industrial tree plantations of mainly rubber, pine, acacia, oil palm, teak, coconut and eucalyptus, and agro-industrial production of cash crops. They provide investors with exclusive rights over land in the concession areas for up to 99 years. In some areas, communities have been evicted to make way for plantations and companies have bulldozed the forests on which communities depend for their livelihoods. Village residents living in areas adjacent to concession areas in Kratie, Stung Treng and Mondulkiri provinces (among others) reported that they are not permitted to use the forests and so called “wastelands” now included in the concession areas, despite the fact these lands have been under their stewardship for generations, are home to their spiritual and sacred sites, and are crucial sources of food and income for them. Communities adjacent to many concession areas also report that companies have expanded the areas claimed in their contracts and encroached on village lands and commons.
Plantations are mono-cultures of specific tree or crop species and repeated planting of the same crop/tree in close cycles requires intensive use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides, which leach into the soil and ground water, reduce the fertility of surrounding areas, contaminate the soil and lead to illness among village residents. Eucalyptus plantations have created aridity, depleted the soil of moisture and nutrients, and contributed to the lowering of underground water and drying up of streams. The Tonle Sap lake in northwest Cambodia is one of the most important freshwater eco-systems in the country and supports millions of Cambodians through its aquatic biodiversity. The lake is threatened by pulp mills that release toxins and chemicals into water bodies that drain into the lake. In Koh Kong and other areas forested by deciduous trees, the planting of mono-culture trees such as acacia and pine destroy spawning grounds for fish in what are locally called “flooded forests” during the monsoons.
In addition to economic and ecological damage are human rights abuses. Village residents are routinely intimidated by armed
security guards hired by concessionaires if they try to enter into commons areas, or protest against encroachment. In several
areas, the actions of armed guards have resulted in violence, injury and death of village residents. In many areas —for example, Pursat, Stung Treng, Kompong Speu, Mondulkiri and Koh Kong— communities have organised themselves to protest the loss of their lands and natural resources and the actions of concessionaires. They have appealed to local, provincial and national authorities for help, which unfortunately has not been forthcoming. Instead, public officials have generally shown a bias in favour of companies and have attempted to intimidate village residents to stop making complaints.
Cambodia's rural poor have benefited little from the country's economic growth. Not only is poverty not being alleviated, on the contrary, more people are becoming impoverished and economically vulnerable. The destruction of bio-diversity and loss of
access to forest products, fish and other aquatic sources are severely compromising food security at local levels. Distress
migration from rural to urban centres—especially Phnom Penh—is increasing. But those who find their way to cities do not find
secure employment or shelter; many live on the streets or in squatter settlements and continue to remain vulnerable to further eviction and displacement.
In the international development world, Cambodia is regarded as a post-conflict country now in an era of peace, stability and
economic and social development, which broadly translate for much of the development establishment as an absence of war and
the adoption of an economic policy package aimed at facilitating market capitalism. But the growing number of land conflicts and increasing alienation of communities from their lands and resources can hardly be considered indicators of peace, stability or well being.
Excerpted from: “Land and Natural Resource Alienation in Cambodia,” by Shalmali Guttal, s.guttal@focusweb.org, Focus on the Global South, December, 2006. The full document is available at: (http://focusweb.org/land-and-natural-resource-alienation-in-cambodia.html).
