Land
Satellite photos show expansion of Chinese-funded naval base in Cambodia
Recent satellite images taken of the coastal area around Sihanoukville, Cambodia, show a significant development of a China-funded naval base that would help Beijing boost its power projection not only in Southeast Asia but also the Taiwan Strait. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019 that Phnom ...
RFA Staff / Edited by Malcolm Foster
No justice for Indigenous community taking on a Cambodian rubber baron
The mood outside the Kampong Thom Provincial Court had grown tense on the afternoon of July 26. Some 12 residents of Ngon village, an Indigenous Kuy community in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district, waited for the judge’s verdict. The group had spent roughly $200 traveling the ...
Gerald Flynn, Vutha Srey
Lao authorities seem powerless to stop crime in Golden Triangle economic zone
The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in northern Laos is a haven for criminal activities including prostitution, scamming and drug trafficking, but Lao authorities are essentially powerless to stop it, workers in the zone and police told Radio Free Asia. The zone is a gambling and ...
RFA Lao
Indigenous Cambodians stripped of ancestral land
In the remote and densely forested northeastern province of Mondulkiri in Cambodia, Song Pro, a member of the indigenous Bunong community, stares at a rubber plantation that was once a sacred forest. When the war in Indochina came to Cambodia in the 1970s, the forest saved ...
Nehru Pry
‘It can be pretty horrifying’: how Cambodia’s land grabs are ruining lives
The monk looks haggard in the midmorning sun, scanning the views through surrounding trees while chainsaws drone in the near distance. “It’s as if a storm has come and the animals have fled like there has been a hurricane,” he says from his sparse, open-air pagoda ...
Andrew Haffner
Thailand grapples with allowing more Chinese landowners
Thailand has been a popular expatriate destination for investment and retirement for decades, but foreign land ownership has long been restricted. Foreigners can own no more than 49% of any condominium development and are restricted from owning most freehold estates. Yet Thailand is keen to attract ...
PREM SINGH GILL
Indigenous woman sentenced to jail for encroachment
The Supreme Court has sentenced an indigenous Karen woman to 2 years and 8 months in prison for encroaching on National Park land despite pleas that the piece of land was passed down through her family. Wansao Phungam is an indigenous Karen woman who lives in ...
Prachatai
Conservationists look for ‘divine intervention’ from forest development
A two-lane dirt road truncates the northeastern tree line of Phnom Tamao Forest, marking the start of a housing complex on private land bordering the protected area. Dozens of boundary markers cemented underneath the tree canopies of the forest indicate the plans for land exchange deals ...
ANTON L. DELGADO
China-Laos low-carbon demonstration zone unveiled in Vientiane
The inauguration ceremony of the Vientiane Saysettha Low-Carbon Demonstration Zone jointly built by China and Laos was held via video conferencing on Friday. The event indicates construction of the demonstration zone has entered a new phase, opening a new chapter for China-Laos cooperation to address climate ...
Xinhua
Laos Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone booming
The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ) is growing in development and investment projects, especially economic infrastructure, agriculture, livestock, hotels, tourism, residential areas, and entertainment, to attract more visitors, while over 500 companies are investing in the area. During a visit by reporters this week to ...
