Land policy and administration

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. ...

The government has reclassified 34,000 square meters of state public land to state private land, clearing the way for the ministries and other authorities in control to sell or rent the properties for private development. ...

Global Witness says Cambodia’s ongoing land crisis is part of a larger global trend, one driven by economics and resource shortages. ...

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 yesterday.The study examines 26 sample villages in Battambang, Kampong Speu, Pursat and Kampong Chhnang provinces, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has issued a directive banning people from renting or selling border land to people from neigbouring countries in an effort to maintain Cambodia’s “national sovereignty and territorial integrity”. ...

Amid rising tensions, authorities in Tbong Khmum province yesterday pledged to intervene in a long-running land conflict between Dambe district residents and a Chinese company by demarcating the disputed area with wooden posts. ...

More than 200 families in Battambang’s Rokhakiri district are preparing to file a petition against local officials who they allege destroyed their homes on Monday in the Prey Tralach community forest. ...

A Tumpoun ethnic villager has received a summons to appear before the Ratanakkiri Provincial Court tomorrow over allegedly grabbing land from a local rubber plantation firm in Bakeo district. ...

Cambodia has issued a pamphlet to local authorities asking them to ban the practice of renting land to people from neighboring countries. From governors to district chiefs, officials were told to focus especially on Cambodians renting their land along the border to Vietnamese farmers. ...

Investigators from South Korea’s state-run deposit insurer have announced their largest overseas illegal assets haul ever after they tracked down and recovered large land holdings owned by a Korean fraudster near Phnom Penh.The haul, worth some $8 million, sheds light on the use of the ...

Now that the roads to Mondulkiri are better and driving to the province is much cheaper, provincial officials have found a new use for the dilapidated airport. ...

Kampong Speu provincial deputy governor Vey Samnang is scratching his head over a dispute between a company that operates a cashew plantation, Ouk Khun, in his province and villagers who say it grabbed their land and then installed electricity cables to electrocute them.  ...

The government has handed out the first 250 land titles to the more than 3,000 families in a World Bank-funded project for poor Cambodians that has been criticized by a local rights group for sticking many of those families with unusable land. ...

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. ...

A broad spectrum of villager representatives, civil society organisations and government officials – large land-concession holders among them – met in the capital for the ninth year in a row yesterday to discuss the Kingdom’s seemingly intractable issue of 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. ...

Six families in Kratie have accused military officers of stealing 20 hectares of their land, destroying their crops and threatening them with rifles.​ ...

In the latest twist in a long-running dispute over a protected community forest in Battambang province, villagers disgusted by rampant land grabbing have begun scrambling for a piece of the action. ...