{"id":1878,"date":"2023-06-12T11:25:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T04:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/?p=1878"},"modified":"2023-08-25T13:39:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T06:39:33","slug":"understanding-cambodias-land-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/2023\/06\/understanding-cambodias-land-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Cambodia\u2019s Land Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, private property was recognized again starting in 1989. But efforts to create a long-lasting and comprehensive land law did not come about until the turn of the century, under heavy influence from the World Bank. The result of that controversial<\/a> process was the 2001 Land Law, which still forms the legal basis for Cambodian land ownership today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the three most important things to know about the land law:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First,<\/strong> the law established five basic categories: private land, state public land, state private land, monastery land, and indigenous land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Controversies around land often start from how an area is classified and whether the government will change its classification. For example, officials may decide that state public land \u2014 such as lakes, natural resources, forests and public amenities \u2014 is state private land once it has \u201clost its public interest use.\u201d While communities have consistently argued that lakes<\/a>, coasts<\/a> and even degraded forests<\/a> slated for private ownership or development still hold public interest value, the state can declare land as private without holding a public forum, let alone defining what constitutes \u201cpublic interest use.\u201d As soon as it is state private land, it can be gifted to individuals or entities \u2014 again without any clear or transparent process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has allowed for the country\u2019s mass land privatization drive in the last few years that has displaced thousands of people, including across Phnom Penh\u2019s fast-disappearing lakes<\/a> and Preah Sihanouk\u2019s Prey Nob district<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second<\/strong>, the law affirmed the right for people who had been living a \u201cpeaceful\u201d and continuous existence for five years prior to the law\u2019s adoption to request a title for ownership. In other words, Cambodians who had been living somewhere since at least 1996 are the legal owners of that land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, that concept has been little-respected and poorly implemented. Residents across the country, from the Unesco-listed Angkor Archaeological Park<\/a> to Phnom Penh\u2019s Boeng Chhouk<\/a> wetland area to neighbors of an air force base in Kampong Chhnang<\/a>, are embroiled in land disputes with companies or the government despite claiming to date their ownership back to the 1990s or 1980s. Even when residents have land titles or other documents that prove they\u2019ve lived in a place since at least 1996, they still face eviction or property destruction, as witnessed by families living near new developments in Phnom Penh\u2019s Boeng Tompun I<\/a> commune. In Tbong Khmum province, 67 families have been involved in a protracted dispute with two companies since 2006, saying they have been trying unsuccessfully<\/a> for years to secure land titles for their occupation dating back to 1985.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See here for further explanation of land titles.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, <\/strong>the law created rules for massive \u201ceconomic land concessions\u201d that began in the 1990s. An economic land concession is land that the government leases to a company or individual for clearing and agricultural development, for a maximum of 99 years. ELCs were originally established to lease land that the government did not have the resources to maintain, granting local or foreign companies the ability to develop sweeping plantations or tourism developments, provided they create a plan for development and pay taxes after an initial startup period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law states that ELCs cannot exceed 10,000 hectares, but in practice, tycoons or companies create multiple legal entities or rely on business partners or relatives to receive side-by-side concessions<\/a> that surpass the legal limit. Some concessions that predated the law, such as Pheapimex\u2019s 315,000 hectares in Kampong Chhnang and Pursat<\/a>, remained in place despite mass protests and unrest among communities living there. In another notorious example, the government leased Union Development Group 36,000 hectares in Koh Kong province, claiming the lease was distinct from an ELC<\/a>. The U.S. Treasury later sanctioned UDG<\/a> for its activities related to the concession, alleging it was a Chinese state-owned entity that acted through Cambodian general Kun Kim to intimidate villagers, burn down their homes and clear land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> to explore our ongoing database of land disputes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2001 Land Law, which came about as the result of a controversial World Bank-influenced process, underpins Cambodians’ fraught ownership of land and the government’s mass land privatization drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-1878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-land-conflict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1878"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2667,"href":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions\/2667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamnotra.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}