Land
Land policy and administration
Three more populations of Indochinese hog deer found in Cambodia
Fauna and Flora International says its has found three previously unknown populations of the endangered Indochinese hog deer in Cambodia. “This is a remarkable discovery given not only the species’ vulnerability to hunting, but also because all of the sites were outside the existing protected area ...
Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=YzRmOWQ0M2JiNzU
Cambodia's rubber export surges 46 pct in 10 months
Cambodia has seen a 46 percent rise in dry rubber export in the first ten months of 2013 thanks to rising global demand, said the report of the Commerce Ministry on Friday. The country exported 62,915 tons of dry rubber during the January-October period this year, ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-11/08/c_132870615.htm
Court asked to cancel warrant for 'Crocodile Grandma'
Defence lawyers representing well-known businesswoman Chhin Sokountheary, also known as the “Crocodile Grandma”, requested the Court of Appeal to consider voiding the tycoon’s warrant for arrest yesterday. Sokountheary was convicted for encroaching on public land and sentenced in absentia to four years and six months in ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/court-asked-cancel-warrant-crocodile-grandma
Despite Ban, $1.5M of Cambodian Sand Turns Up in India
A huge haul of river sand dredged in Cambodia has been quarantined at the southern Indian port city of Cochin since its arrival in April despite a ban on sand exports instituted by Prime Minister Hun Sen in 2009. India’s Deccan Chronicle newspaper reported on Tuesday ...
Alex Willemyns and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/despite-ban-1-5m-of-cambodian-sand-turns-up-in-india-46753/
Boeung Kak villagers closer to land titles
It’s taken years of waiting – and protesting – but families in the capital’s Boeung Kak community yesterday saw City Hall officials measure land in their villages. Representatives of the city were deployed yesterday to villages 24, 22 and 6 to demarcate land as a step ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/boeung-kak-villagers-closer-land-titles-linkfix
CPP Lawmaker Says Deforestation Is Good for Economy
CPP lawmaker Chheang Vun on Wednesday lauded the economic and social benefits of the widespread clearing of Cambodia’s forests for development projects. Speaking to reporters at the National Assembly after a meeting with the Vietnamese Ambassador Ngo Anh Dzung, Mr. Vun, who is also the spokesman ...
Mech Dara and Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cpp-lawmaker-says-deforestation-is-good-for-economy-46721/
World Bank Says Freeze on Lending Remains
After repeatedly equivocating about whether it has lifted a 2011 freeze on new lending to Cambodia in response to the government’s forced evictions of families in Phnom Penh, the World Bank has said that the suspension is still firmly in place. “The World Bank has not ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/world-bank-says-freeze-on-lending-remains-46681/
Evictees, Activists Scuffle With Police in Front of City Hall
Evictees and anti-eviction activists on Wednesday briefly scuffled with police and security guards after cutting off traffic in front of Phnom Penh City Hall to demand that businesswoman Suy Sophan compensate them for homes that were bulldozed early last year. Human rights group Adhoc said at ...
Khuon Narim and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/evictees-activists-scuffle-with-police-in-front-of-city-hall-46362/
Official DisputesWhen Dam Clearing Ceased
A Stung Treng province district official on Sunday contradicted claims that logging in the area designated for the Sesan 2 dam had ceased a month ago, saying that it had only stopped last week after direct orders from the government to do so. On Thursday, Ministry ...
Chhorn Chansy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/official-disputeswhen-dam-clearing-ceased-46002/
New Documentary Explores the Societal Costs of Development
The documentary “Even A Bird Needs a Nest,” which premiered Thursday night at Meta House in Phnom Penh, starts off strong: an interview of Prime Minister Hun Sen speaking about the country’s progress and development. “The period of Hun Sen is a period of searching for ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-documentary-explores-the-societal-costs-of-development-45979/
More “Empty promises” for Boeung Kak
Boeung Kak Lake residents say they’ve been given another hollow promise after Phnom Penh’s governor failed to start measuring property for land titles on Wednesday. On Monday, Governor Pa Socheatvong met with 76 Boeung Kak Lake families and, according to those in attendance, promised that land ...
Sopheak Chakrya, P.6
http://www.phnompenhpost.com
Petition for Investigation Into Sugar Trade Gains Support
More than 55,000 people have joined an online petition set up by a pair of French nongovernment groups urging the European Union (E.U.) to immediately launch an investigation into local sugar plantations accused of illegally evicting hundreds of Cambodian families. At the center of the dispute ...
Zsombor Peter and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/petition-for-investigation-into-sugar-trade-gains-support-45704/
City Says It Will Provide Land Titles to 33 Boeng Kak Families
Phnom Penh Municipality will provide land titles to 33 more families living in the city’s Boeng Kak neighborhood, a municipal official said Tuesday, roughly a third of those still seeking property rights in the area that has seen some 3,000 forced evictions. “First, we will solve ...
Khy Sovuthy and Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-says-it-will-provide-land-titles-to-33-boeng-kak-families-45710/
Ethnic Bunong Families Seek Solution to Communal Land Dispute
Three ethnic minority communities in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Chreada district are drafting a petition to send to provincial authorities in an attempt to resolve a land dispute in which part of their communal land has been granted to other communities and private landowners. In June, officials ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ethnic-bunong-families-seek-solution-to-communal-land-dispute-45669/
Court Dismisses Rights Groups’ Complaints
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has dismissed two complaints submitted by two local human rights groups, Adhoc and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), against local officials who they alleged had defamed and intimidated their staff, court officials said Friday. Adhoc filed a complaint against Pheng ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-dismisses-rights-groups-complaints-45516/
Land-titling process ‘urgent’, Oxfam says
Accelerating the mapping and titling of rural farmland should be an “urgent” priority of the government and civil society, particularly when it comes to protecting indigenous peoples’ and women’s rights, Oxfam representatives said yesterday. The remarks followed the release of an EU-funded survey of rural communities’ ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-titling-process-%E2%80%98urgent%E2%80%99-oxfam-says
Activists Doubt Cambodia Pledge to Stop Land Concessions
Activists are skeptical that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will follow through on a pledge to stop a contentious practice of appropriating rural land for commercial use, an issue that hurt the leader and his party in elections in July. In its new five-year political platform ...
Chun Han Wong
http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-341290/
Apsara Authority Moves to Offices Far From Siem Reap City
Apsara Authority officials on Tuesday began moving to their new offices far outside of Siem Reap onto land within the Angkor Archaeological Park as part of a swap with the city’s provincial government, officials said. The move comes after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered Siem Reap’s ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/apsara-authority-moves-to-offices-far-from-siem-reap-city-42132/
After Land Swap, Siem Reap Government Moves Again
Siem Reap’s provincial government apparatus, which in 2010 was relocated to a remote site 16 km outside of the city as part of an extensive and hugely controversial swap of government land and buildings, is moving back to its old home in the tourist city’s ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/top/after-land-swap-siem-reap-government-moves-again-41819/
Fighting a different battle
Sok Ren’s eyes dart from side to side as he explains in a hushed tone why he’s been detained at military barracks in Preah Vihear province, rarely allowed to leave and under near constant surveillance, since July 31. While casting his ballot for the Cambodian People’s ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/fighting-different-battle
Court Questions Cambodian, Chinese Businessmen Over Fraud
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday questioned two businessmen over allegations of fraud and using forged public documents, including claims they faked a signature from Prime Minister Hun Sen in a mining transaction, court and police officials said. Deputy prosecutor Var Sakada said Cambodian Al ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-questions-cambodian-chinese-businessmen-over-fraud-40923/
Hun Sen’s Land Titles Receive Rare Praise From Germany
Since Prime Minister Hun Sen announced an ambitious new plan some 10 months ago to make nearly half a million families official land owners, hardly a week goes by that a rural community does not complain of local officials trying to scam the project. But when ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-land-titles-receive-rare-praise-from-germany-17312/
Forestry Administration Fights Logging with Wedding Gardens
As the remains of the county’s forests fall to rapacious illegal loggers and to make way for the government-awarded economic land concessions, officials tasked with forestry protection are hoping newlywed couples can build a last line of defense. “Wedding gardens”- green spaces where newly-married couples are ...
Kuch Naren, P.20
http://www.cambodiadaily.com
New study reveals catastrophic loss of Cambodia's tropical flooded grasslands
Around half of Cambodia’s tropical flooded grasslands have been lost in just 10 years according to new research from the University of East Anglia. The seasonally flooded grasslands around the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, are of great importance for biodiversity and a ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-03-reveals-catastrophic-loss-cambodia-tropical.html