Land policy and administration

Cambodian Environment Minister Say Samal said Tuesday that the government had cancelled licenses of economic land concessions (ELCs) for 23 companies last year after the firms have failed to develop the land for years. ...

About 100 villagers embroiled in a land dispute in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar district gathered on National Road 6A at 7am yesterday, blocking the road with wooden beds and their bodies for three hours. The protest stems from a December 15 court injunction ordering 30 villagers ...

A father and daughter, arrested last month following a complaint by a powerful landowner who wants their land in Phnom Penh, called on the tycoon to engage with them face to face in a courtroom hearing yesterday. ...

The government has seized more than 50,000 hectares of economic land concessions from a number of powerful companies across the Kingdom, putting the areas under the control of the Ministry of Environment, according to sub-decrees signed last week. One decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen ...

Local developer Shukaku will step up construction of its controversial Boeung Kak lake development project this month, beginning work on a drainage system and corporate office, a spokeswoman told the Post yesterday. An updated master plan of Shukaku’s Phnom Penh City Centre project – an ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s sister Hun Sinath has resigned from her job as a secretary of state over what she said was her colleagues’ fear of investigating a land dispute between villagers in Kampong Speu province and tycoon Ly Yong Phat. Sinath revealed her resignation ...

As the deadline set by City Hall for residents of a village in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district to vacate the area draws near, about 100 of them delivered a petition to the National Assembly on Wednesday in a last ditch effort to convince lawmakers ...

More than 100 soldiers in Pursat province have threatened to resign en masse after being ordered to bulldoze their own lands, which are claimed by tycoon Try Pheap’s MDS Import Export Company. The threat of mass resignations came two days after a soldier, Seng Pov, took ...

Three parliamentarians from the National Assembly’s human rights commission, led by CNRP lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang, returned Tuesday from a two-day visit to four communities in Koh Kong province locked in land disputes with companies holding private land concessions. Following the trip, the lawmakers said ...

Residents on Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar peninsula embroiled in a land dispute with tycoon Pung Khieu Se’s Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation were to submit a petition to City Hall today following a new compensation offer from the authorities last week. ...

Mong Reththy, one of Cambodia’s most prominent tycoons, complained Tuesday that recent recipients of expansive land concessions from the government have less of a social conscience than entrepreneurs granted land in the 1990s. Speaking on the sidelines of a conference hosted by USAID and the NGO ...

Officials at the World Bank, which in 2011 froze new loans to Cambodia amid a furore surrounding the Boeung Kak lake evictions, have approved preliminary proposals to issue funding for a project that could see families forcibly removed in Kampong Thom province. Under the World Bank’s ...

Germany’s ambassador to Cambodia, Joachim Baron von Marschall, yesterday cautioned against too much optimism in the land sector in the face of ongoing disputes and forced evictions. The ambassador made the comments at a workshop on sustainable land policy in the capital, where speakers from ...

The Siem Reap provincial office of the Cambodian Red Cross has swapped land with a private company, moving from a prime spot in the heart of Siem Reap City to a cheaper plot 8 km away and on the outskirts of town, officials said Tuesday. ...

More than 200 people in Kampong Speu’s Oral district gathered yesterday to submit a second petition to HLH Company – an agro-business linked to Hun Seng Ny, the sister of Prime Minister Hun Sen – demanding the return of their land, community representatives said. ...

A 60-year-old woman was injured and sent to hospital yesterday when police cracked down on anti-eviction protesters blocking a busy bridge in Koh Kong province, villagers said. More than 100 villagers locked in a dispute with the company that manages the Koh Kong Special Economic ...

About 40 security guards armed with axes and AK-47s and working for the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) on Sunday demolished the homes of three villagers who claim to own land on UDG’s sprawling $3.8-billion beachside tourist development in Koh Kong province, villagers said. ...

Representatives of some 100 families living at the top of a waterfall on the outskirts of Sihanoukville blocked a major highway on Saturday to protest the destruction of their homes and crops by authorities earlier that day, villagers and local officials said Sunday. ...

Security guards hired by the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) thwarted an attempt Friday by 10 villagers to bring a halt to the company’s clearing of land in Koh Kong province, locals said. ...

More than 200 ethnic families in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom town filed complaints to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet and the provincial court yesterday, asking for the cancellation of Villa Development’s land concession and demanding $500 million for allegedly destroying their resin trees. The complaint is the ...

About 500 villagers involved in a protracted land dispute with a rubber company blocked National Road 7 in Tbong Khmum province’s Memot district on Thursday to demand titles to land they say they have lived on since 1980. ...

More than 130 families will be relocated to make way for a multibillion-dollar development project in the capital’s Chroy Changva district after an agreement was signed yesterday by villagers, district officials and the Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation (OCIC ) said.​ ...

More than 1 million hectares of forest terrain and land leased by private companies has been put under government control since Prime Minister Hun Sen initiated a moratorium on new economic land concessions (ELCs) in May 2012, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and ...

One of 11 firms that had their economic land concessions revoked by the Ministry of Environment on Friday has continued to work its former land in Banteay Meanchey province, according to local residents. ...