Concessions

A coalition of villagers in long-running land disputes with development companies along Cambodia’s coastline from Koh Kong, Preah Sihanouk, Kampot and Kep provinces held a press conference in Phnom Penh on 21 March calling for authorities to resolve their cases. Keep reading ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has levelled further criticism at the Vietnamese army’s alleged control of 40,000 hectares of economic land concessions (ELCs) in Ratanakkiri province, claiming that the grants are in violation of the Cambodian constitution. Transferred over 2011 and 2012 to Vietnamese companies Veasna Investment, ...

Preah Vihear provincial authorities cracked down last week on an illegal gold mining operation occurring inside a land concession belonging to a Chinese company in Rovieng district. Unauthorised mining is common both inside and outside the 2008 concession to Cambodia WS Mining Industry Holding Ltd, known ...

Cambodia continues to lack an effective way to resolve land disputes, which remain a major destroyer of livelihoods for many families, according to a study released by the NGO Forum on 18 November. The study examines 26 sample villages in Battambang, Kampong Speu, Pursat and Kampong ...

Asia’s largest sugar producer, Mitr Phol, is responsible for violating the rights of hundreds of villagers in Oddar Meanchey who saw their land grabbed, homes destroyed and livestock killed to make way for plantations, according to the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT). The Thai ...

Ethnic minorities in Ratanakkiri province have accused local authorities of selling community forest land to a provincial court official and threatening to put them in jail, according to a complaint filed on 27 October. The complaint was filed to the provincial office of rights group Adhoc ...

The Ministry of Environment has cancelled seven carbon credit schemes and reduced the leases of six economic land concessions as part of an ongoing reform effort, according to a 16 October announcement. Keep reading ...

Defiant farmers in Mandalay Region are cultivating fields they say they own as negotiations with the local authorities broke down.  The 200 farmers began harrowing the fields, which are slated for a golf resort, on 25 September in preparation for planting. The farmers say more than 600 ...

Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation U Myint Hlaing came under pressure from constituents on 23 September over allegations land had been taken from farmers and placed in his wife’s name. But the minister, who has previously been linked to large land grabs during his time as a regional military ...

Rights group Licadho has called on the government to make available statistics on the full extent of economic land concessions in response to data collected by the organisation over five years. Keep reading ...