News
Families back sugar land deal
Families in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel and Botum Sakor districts have agreed to accept land and $2,500 per family in a compromise with the Land Ministry to end their land dispute with sugar cane plantation companies. However, they have asked the ministry to speed ...
Villagers issue new calls to solve old land dispute
Villagers from Oddar Meanchey used a news conference on March 21 to appeal for government action to return land at the centre of a years-old dispute with sugar companies. The conflict erupted in 2008, when villagers were forcibly evicted from their land to allow Angkor Sugar, ...
Ministry to closely monitor agri-business
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will this year closely monitor domestic and foreign investment in this sector as it believes that many companies have not implemented the agreements made or complied with stipulated feasibility study methods. The ministry will strictly apply management measures to ...
Sugar giant has sweet dreams
A colossal sugar mill in Preah Vihear province will roar to life again next week, promising to devour 1 million tonnes of sugarcane in a two-month production run that is expected to yield 100,000 tonnes of refined white sugar, as well as a sizeable chunk ...
Study finds that carbon finance is not a one-size-fits-all solution to deforestation
Halting the pace at which we’re destroying the world’s forests for agriculture, forestry, mines, and other economic development projects is crucial to combating climate change. Carbon finance, which involves creating monetary incentives for companies and countries to invest in programs to reduce carbon emissions, is ...
Chhin chides ministry on ELCs
Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin, the Kingdom’s top authority in charge of resolving land disputes, slammed the Ministry of Agriculture over “shameful” irregularities in granting economic land concessions at the Environment Ministry’s annual meeting on December 21. During yesterday’s meeting, Chhin accused the Ministry of ...
Millions of Cambodian farmers receive land titles under state plan
Cambodia is moving fast to provide millions of land titles to farmers in an effort to reduce conflicts over territory in the Southeast Asian nation, a senior government official said. About 770,000 Cambodians — more than five percent of the population — have been affected by land ...
Government, plantation managers trade blame
The managers of some of Cambodia’s most controversial agribusiness plantations on 21 July blamed their many land disputes on the government, accusing officials of failing to educate communities about the benefits of their giant farms. Rights groups blame economic land concessions for some of Cambodia’s worst problems, ...
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 ...