Land policy and administration

The government is refusing to release copies of letters it claims to have sent to timber traders Try Pheap and Lim Bunna giving them permission to collect already felled wood on a pair of canceled economic land concessions (ELCs) inside a wildlife sanctuary. ...

Mong Reththy Group, one of the Kingdom’s largest agro-industrial conglomerates, insisted yesterday that it had settled arrears on its palm oil concession more than six months ago, contrary to local media reports stating the company owed concession rental fees dating back nearly 20 years. ...

Cambodian tycoon Kith Meng’s Royal Group failed to persuade a high-level meeting of government and Preah Sihanouk officials to resume construction of a 40-metre port at Otres Beach, and will instead have to explore the use of other locations along the coastline. ...

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. ...

Thirty-one evicted Borei Keila community families received flats and another four families got $15,000 buyouts on Saturday as part of a “lucky draw” organised to resolve their years-long land dispute. ...

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. ...

A Kandal province businessman yesterday denied involvement in illegal land transactions after villagers in Khsach Kandal district last week alleged he illegally bought and filled parts of a seasonal lake used for communal fishing and farming. ...

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. ...

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 ...

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. ...

The Siem Reap Provincial Court last week questioned a CPP village chief concurrently with a Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) commune chief after they signed documents allowing villagers to mortgage land claimed by the Apsara Authority, officials said on Monday, but charged and jailed only the ...

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.    ...

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, ...

French owned plantation firm Socfin has restarted talks with indigenous villagers affected by its plantations in Mondulkiri province, with the UN saying the process could be replicated across a region dominated by agro-industrial firms. ...

A senior environment official yesterday alleged that the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party and human rights groups should shoulder much of the blame for the destruction of the country’s protected areas. ...

Thirteen ethnic Tumpuon villagers have been summonsed to appear at Ratanakkiri Provincial Court on Wednesday over a long-running land dispute with a rubber firm in Bakeo district. ...

More than 100 family representatives yesterday filed complaints at Ratanakkiri Provincial Hall and the Interior Ministry, claiming that requests to be issued with identity cards so they could vote in upcoming elections were denied by local police officials. ...

A local conservation NGO has accused two people, one of them a soldier, of buying up and attempting to sell a parcel of state land near the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary in Kampong Speu province. ...

The Council of Ministers yesterday approved a sweeping new master plan for managing urban development in Phnom Penh over the next 20 years, according to a statement from the cabinet, although it was scant on specifics. ...

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. ...

The Preah Vihear Provincial Court has ordered nine villagers to appear on Wednesday to respond to allegations that they dismantled the office of a Malaysian rubber plantation company five months ago. ...

When 112 families gathered to demonstrate for four hours in front of the Ratanakkiri provincial court last Wednesday, most of their invective was directed toward the court itself, and toward someone they termed “a rich man from Phnom Penh,” a Mr. Heang Socheat, whom, they ...

About 150 villagers, enraged by the conviction and imprisonment of three of their community representatives, yesterday destroyed the gates of Ratanakkiri Provincial Court, bursting into the courtroom only to find that the three men had already been sent to jail.The representatives – Chroeung Touch, Em ...

The governor of Battambang province has promised to attempt to find a resolution in a long-running land dispute after 250 people held a protest in front of Battambang Provincial Hall yesterday. ...