Public land lease
Concessions
Pheap denies link to timber at Mondulkiri ELC
As a national crackdown on illegal logging rumbles on, Try Pheap, Cambodia’s most prominent timber tycoon, issued a public denial of reports that he was linked to an economic land concession (ELC) where authorities found hundreds of cubic metres of potentially illegal timber. ...
Phak Seangly and Mech Dara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pheap-denies-link-timber-mondulkiri-elc
Report that new ELCs were granted to logging barons ‘false’
In an open letter to the Ministry of Environment, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) asked yesterday for confirmation of a January 19 report in the Cambodia Daily that said new economic land concessions (ELCs) had been given to two tycoons despite a ban ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/20653/report-that-new-elcs-were-granted-to-logging-barons----false---/
Compensation deal is inked with Borei Keila evictees
After seeing a signing ceremony interrupted by protesters on Tuesday, officials from the joint committee for Borei Keila housing solutions yesterday inked compensation deals with 32 out of 56 evicted families. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/compensation-deais-inked-borei-keila-evicteees
Try Pheap gets new ELC amid freeze, governor says
Timber magnate Try Pheap and businessman Lim Bunna were granted economic land concessions (ELCs) on property inside a wildlife sanctuary confiscated from two other companies for violating their government contracts, a provincial governor told a meeting of officials on Monday. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/try-pheap-gets-new-elc-amid-freeze-governor-says-105822/
Vietnamese military-held ELCs in R’kiri slashed according to government
Four Vietnamese military-controlled land concessions in Ratanakkiri province were downsized to a fraction of their original acreage as part of a government audit of land leased to private companies, officials said yesterday, amid opposition criticism of the concessions. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/vietnamese-military-held-elcs-rkiri-slashed-according-government
Officials claim ignorance of illegal logging report by police
Police and government officials say they know nothing about a recent report published by the National Police accusing wealthy businessman Soeng Sam Ol of using government-approved economic land concessions in Mondolkiri province to illegally log a local wildlife sanctuary, but added that they would investigate ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-claim-ignorance-of-illegal-logging-report-by-police-104650/
Police accuse firm, Oknha of illegal logging
In a rare move, the National Police on Monday leveled accusations of illegal logging against a number of government-granted economic land concessions (ELCs) in the eastern province of Mondolkiri, singling out a Chinese-owned rubber plantation and wealthy businessman Soeng Sam Ol. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-accuse-firm-oknha-of-illegal-logging-104389/
VN army concessions are ‘unconstitutional’
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. ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/vn-army-concessions-are-unconstitutional
Aggrieved villagers come to Phnom Penh for protest
About 100 residents of Preah Vihear province’s Choam Ksan district gathered at Phnom Penh’s restive Samakki Raingsey pagoda on Wednesday ahead of a planned march calling for justice in their long-running land dispute. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/aggrieved-villagers-come-to-phnom-penh-for-protest-103757/
Grand concessions
Nobody here seems to know much about Company 72.Locals know they are living on land the company cultivates under a government-granted economic land concession (ELC)—some have taken menial jobs tending the crops, all have seen lush forests decimated to make way for them—but beyond that, ...
Matt Blomberg and Van Roeun
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/grandconcessions/
Borei Keila evictees call for gov’t clarification
About 30 members of the displaced Borei Keila community rallied outside Phnom Penh City Hall on Friday, seeking clarification about the compensation on offer to them amid complaints that municipal authorities have not been keeping the community informed. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/borei-keila-evictees-call-for-govt-clarification-102882/
Ratanakkiri court rejects petition over dispute
More than 200 people living on a contested plot of land in Ratanakkiri province on Thursday lodged a petition with the provincial court calling for the release of three community leaders who were convicted and jailed on Wednesday over a dispute with a wealthy businessman, ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ratanakkiri-court-rejects-petition-over-dispute-102009/
Firm gives Ratanakkiri minorities cash for ceremony
Representatives of 14 ethnic minority communities in Ratanakkiri province on Friday accepted $1,700 each from Vietnamese rubber company Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) to buy a buffalo and hold a ceremony to appease the spirits that had been disturbed by the firm’s plantations. ...
Khuon Narim and Matt Blomberg
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/firm-gives-ratana%C2%ADkkiri-minorities-cash-for-ceremony-100330/
Land representative’s request to stop trial denied by judge
One of two women claiming to represent 163 families that won access to a swath of land in Sen Sok district after a prolonged dispute failed Wednesday to have her breach of trust and forgery charges thrown out of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. ...
Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-representatives-request-to-stop-trial-denied-by-judge-99393/
Mong Reththy: cooperation key to solving land disputes
Mong Reththy, a senator for the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and an agro-industrial tycoon, said land disputes between companies and local residents occur because of a lack of understanding on both sides. ...
Chea Takihiro
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/17444/mong-reththy--cooperation-key-to-solving-land-disputes/
Rights report decries sugar firm’s tactics
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). ...
Phak Seangly and Shaun Turton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rights-report-decries-sugar-firms-tactics
Forest management group strips Vietnamese rubber company of certification
A global forest management organization has stripped a Vietnamese rubber company of its certification after finding that the state-owned entity committed human rights violations and illegally destroyed thousands of acres of forest for rubber plantations in Cambodia. ...
Activists to begin daily anti-eviction protests
A few dozen of the staunchest activists from the evicted Boeng Kak, Borei Keila and SOS communities Monday announced that they had began a campaign of daily protests that will last for the next month to call attention to their ongoing land settlement grievances. ...
Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/activists-to-begin-daily-anti-eviction-protests-98385/
Cambodian villagers demand probe of security guards following death threats
Villagers in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung Treng province on Friday called for an investigation into a group of security guards who shot at them with rifles after they requested permission to cut down trees in a concession area to use for building homes. ...
Men Chanthy
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/threats-10232015153107.html
Environment ministry ends ELC assessments
The Environment Ministry has reduced the terms of six economic land concessions (ELCs) to 50 years from between 70 and 90 years after seven of eight carbon credit investment projects were revoked. ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/16889/environment-ministry-ends-elc-assessments/
Court hears $2.5m land concession fraud case
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday heard the case of an agribusiness owner who accused a broker of defrauding him of $2.5 million after failing to process documents that would allow him to develop a land concession in Mondolkiri province. ...
Ouch Sony
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-hears-2-5m-land-concession-fraud-case-96181/
Agriculture ministry to end ELC assessment in October
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) will finalize its assessment over the companies which have been granted economic land concessions (ELCs), in October, as the ministry has announced to reduce the period of ELC investment to 50 years from 70-99 years, said a ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/agriculture-ministry-to-end-elc-assessment-in-october-9002
Agriculture ministry to end ELC assessment in October
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) will finalize its assessment over the companies which have been granted economic land concessions (ELCs), in October, as the ministry has announced to reduce the period of ELC investment to 50 years from 70-99 years, said a ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/agriculture-ministry-to-end-elc-assessment-in-october-9002
Chinese firm begins construction at Boeng Kak
Eight years after CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin signed off on a 99-year lease of Boeng Kak lake in one of the most controversial real estate deals in Phnom Penh’s recent history, a Chinese firm has begun construction on the first major development project on ...
Peter Ford
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chinese-firm-begins-construction-at-boeng-kak-96025/