Land
World Bank to Support Land Administration, Titling in Lao PDR
Land holders across Lao PDR, including some of the most vulnerable households, are expected to benefit from improved land administration and titling thanks to a project approved by the World Bank this week. The $31 million Enhancing Systematic Land Registration Project will be run by the government’s Ministry ...
Aiden Glendinning
Myanmar Junta Pushing Ahead with China-Backed Kyaukphyu SEZ and Port
The military regime is inviting bids to provide legal services to the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (KPSEZ) and deep-sea port project in western Rakhine State, a key strategic component of China ‘s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The junta’s invitation to tender comes as China is ...
THE IRRAWADDY
Carving up the Cardamoms: Conservationists fear massive land grab in Cambodia
A new regulation signed into law in March this year but only unveiled publicly in May will see almost 127,000 hectares (313,800 acres) of previously protected land in Cambodia made available for sale or rent, prompting fears among conservationists about a land grab for some ...
GERALD FLYNN & ANDREW BALL & PHOUNG VANTHA
Mekong Development Zones Facilitating Illicit Activities: Report
Economic development zones in mainland Southeast Asia have contributed to a range of illicit activities, including drug trafficking and wildlife trafficking, according to a new report from C4ADS, a U.S.-based research organization. The report, which analyzes 110 economic development zones (EDZs) in the five lower Mekong nations – ...
Sebastian Strangio
Is there such a thing as a ‘green’ SEZ in Cambodia?
Svay Rieng, a town in south-eastern Cambodia, is both a gateway to Vietnam and for more than a decade now a hotbed of Cambodian industrial development. But a lack of compliance with environmental and labour regulations has raised tensions with local communities. The region is home ...
Chan Muyhong
Vietnamese Mother, Son Draw Eight-Year Prison Terms for Land-Rights Activism
A court in northern Vietnam’s Hoa Binh province on Wednesday sentenced land-rights activist Can Thi Theu and her son Trinh Ba Tu to eight years in prison each for posting online articles and livestream videos criticizing the government for its handling of a deadly land-rights ...
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Cambodia puts its arduous titling process for Indigenous land up for review
Ethnic Kui Indigenous people have for generations mined the mountains and streams of Cambodia’s Romtom commune for their livelihoods. But those traditions shifted as Delcom, a Malaysian-owned gold-mining company, began digging up the land in the early 2010s and confronting artisanal miners with armed guards. ...
Danielle Keeton-Olsen
Vietnam tightens land management
Vietnam’s ministries of Construction, and Natural Resources and Environment have requested provinces and cities review state management on land prices amid ‘land fever’ in some localities. The environment ministry said land prices in some localities and areas have increased dramatically, which could affect socio-economic development and ...
Asia News Network
‘What other country would do this to its people?’ Cambodian land grab victims seek int’l justice
“It started when some people from the government came around the community telling us that we were illegally occupying the land,” Chhae Kimsrour said in June 2020. “I’ve lived here since 1995, but six months later they came back and started filling in my lake. ...
GERALD FLYNN, PHOUNG VANTHA
Preah Vihear villagers seek solution to ‘encroachment’
Around 230 families from three villages in Romtom commune of Preah Vihear province’s Rovieng district said they are worried about the continued encroachment on their farmland by three companies which have licences for gold mining and agricultural in the area. The villageres said they had been ...
Long Kimmarita
