Industrial production
Economic land concessions and plantations
ADB to provide more support for development in Laos
The Asian Development Bank will provide US$32 million for the Climate-Friendly Agribusiness Value Chains Sector Project in Laos next year. This information was confirmed on Monday by Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, Dr Khamlian Pholsena after returning from the 21st GMS Ministerial Conference, held ...
ELCs bring no benefits to local communities: study
A study looking at economic land concessions in Ratanakkiri province has found that, contrary to the oft-repeated government narrative, they have brought almost no benefits to local communities. Speaking at a launch event for the study yesterday, one of the researchers behind it, Dr Neth ...
Scoring palm oil buyers on their sustainability commitments
2015 was supposed to be a big year for the palm oil industry — the year it proposed to reach a “tipping point” and begin predominantly producing and trading palm oil that was not responsible for the destruction of forests, abuses of human rights, and ...
Indonesia: Haze investigators held captive, threatened with death
A large group of about 100 men hired by an Indonesian palm oil firm took several investigators hostage last weekend in an apparent bid to stop their probe into the forest fires blamed for the region’s haze problem. According to Jakarta Globe, the captors, believed to be mobilized by PT Andika Permata ...
Binh Phuoc suspends six forest projects
The southern province of Binh Phuoc will stop clearing natural forest land for the planting of industrial trees with high economic value, the provincial authority has announced. Binh Phuoc Province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development reported that it had initially suspended six projects for developing ...
Protest leader arrested in Mondolkiri after reoccupation attempt
An anti-eviction protester who police claim orchestrated several large-scale reoccupation attempts on a planned rubber plantation in Mondolkiri province was arrested on 11 July, police and a rights monitor said. About 500 families living on the land were evicted in 2012, three years after the Pacific ...
NGO releases ELC figures to help with ‘shortcomings’
The NGO Forum on 28 June released an extensive and updated accounting of economic land concessions in Cambodia, suggesting that in a 20-year period, 267 ELCs totalling 1,532,783 hectares were granted. The data collection, from 1995 to the end of 2015, was conducted by the Research Advocacy ...
PM pledges answers on Vietnamese border ELCs
Prime Minister Hun Sen will assign a team to respond to questions about the Vietnamese army’s alleged control of 40,000 hectares of land in Ratanakkiri province submitted by opposition lawmaker Um Sam An, imprisoned in April for his criticism of the government’s border policy. The letter, ...
New group set up to tackle land disputes
The newly appointed minister of land management and urban planning, Chea Sophara, has announced a working group to handle petitions and complaints lodged by land dispute victims. “The working group has the duty to meet and receive related petitions from protesters, coordinate and solve issues, suggest ...
No more land concessions in Champassak
No more state land will be released under concession for planting rice, coffee, rubber, cassava or maize in Champassak province, as most areas suited to agriculture are already being utilised. Champassak agricultural authorities in Laos advised that prospective investors should go to the province of Saravan ...
