Economic land concessions and plantations

Massive deforestation is playing a crucial role in the droughts that have devastated Cambodia. But despite an official ban on timber exports, forests continue to be cut down at a record rate.The Cambodian government awarded between 30 and 40 logging concessions to private companies during ...

Hong Kong-listed firm North Asia Resources Holding Ltd announced yesterday that it has purchased 14,000 hectares of an economic land concession in Pursat province from Henan Tianguan Enterprise Group for $53.2 million.​ ...

Cambodia’s biggest sugar mill has finished its two-month production run, producing half a million tonnes of refined white sugar, nearly five times what the company predicted at the beginning of the harvest season, a company representative said yesterday.The Cambodian government granted Rui Feng Cambodia an ...

Villagers in Mondulkiri province have pleaded with local authorities to intervene after a company behind a nearby rubber plantation began charging them 20,000 riel ($5) to use a local road. Security guards at the Tong Min Group property told villagers from Pech Chreada district’s Pou ...

The Court of Appeal on Tuesday rejected the request of five families from Koh Kong province to nullify the deals they made seven years ago to give up their land to a local sugarcane plantation on the grounds that they were coerced. ...

The Preah Sihanouk province land management committee is in the process of issuing land titles for 82 families in a recently converted forest area, as well as from an economic land concession (ELC) belonging to the Mong Reththy Group. ...

The Commerce Ministry has threatened to take unspecified legal “measures” against anyone joining a protest against a sugarcane plantation who does not have a personal claim in the dispute.​   ...

A long-running land dispute between 175 Koh Kong farmers and two sugarcane firms accused of stealing their land came a step closer to conclusion on Thursday after 73 of the farming families accepted compensation, a government official said.   ...

A group of 20 people representing 554 families locked in a 10-year land dispute yesterday submitted a petition asking the government to end the lengthy conflict.   ...

South Korea will manage the replanting of trees on former economic land concessions—with an eye toward eventually entering Cambodia’s logging industry—under a tentative agreement between the two countries, Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon said on Wednesday.   ...

More than 300 ethnic villagers at two separate locations in Preah Vihear province conducted traditional ceremonies yesterday beseeching the spirits for an end to their ongoing land dispute with the Chinese-owned Rui Feng sugar company. ...

The government is seeking intrepid smallholder farmers to pilot a project that would transform 6,000 hectares of cropland in two provinces into a patchwork of small rubber plantations.The Ministry of Agriculture is eyeing 5,000 hectares of land in Ratanakkiri and 1,000 hectares in Battambang for ...

About 100 villagers involved in a long-running land dispute with Koh Kong Sugar Industry Company attempted to march to the home of Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday, culminating in a physical altercation with authorities.The mostly female group of protesters was stopped at 10:40am by Daun ...

Villagers in Kampot’s Chhouk district have demanded that a private firm they accuse of failing to develop its economic land concession (ELC) have its permit to use the land revoked. ...

About 500 people representing thousands of families from four provinces who are affected by the development of sugarcane plantations requested intervention from Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday. ...

The Agriculture Ministry renewed the license for timber extraction on a land concession in a protected area in September, despite previously concluding that the land within the concession had been completely cleared, according to a conservation group and documents obtained by reporters this month. ...

The Land Ministry will meet with the three companies at the center of the decade-long land dispute in Koh Kong province this week in an attempt to finally resolve the villagers’ grievances. ...

Ethnic Kuoy villagers in Preah Vihear’s Chey Sen district filed a complaint against Chinese sugar company Rui Feng on Tuesday after a long-simmering land dispute almost erupted into violence last week. ...

Representatives of 175 families in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel and Botum Sakor districts have released their final demands to end their 10-year land dispute with Koh Kong Sugar Industry (KSI) and Koh Kong Plantation. The families are asking for two hectares of land to be ...

Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Wednesday repeated his claims that forest crimes and land disputes sparked by sprawling commercial farms run by wealthy businessmen and foreign corporations had decreased or were mostly over, claims that rights groups dispute.​ ...

A Kampong Speu community is looking to raise money to build three watering holes for wildlife, especially the endangered banteng, for the upcoming hot season after a nearby sugarcane plantation allegedly filled in existing streams. ...

Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin, the Kingdom’s top authority in charge of resolving land disputes, slammed the Ministry of Agriculture over “shameful” irregularities in granting economic land concessions at the Environment Ministry’s annual meeting yesterday.During yesterday’s meeting, Chhin accused the Ministry of Agriculture of granting ...

In recent years, communities displaced by sugar plantations have attempted to reclaim their land by targeting the plantations’ investors and buyers overseas, but a study published last week in the peer-reviewed Journal of Civil Society suggests such efforts may disappoint. ...

A little-publicized sub-decree signed in July and discovered by the Post yesterday in an NGO database raises questions as to whether the eviction on Saturday of six ethnic Kuoy families in Preah Vihear was in contravention of an order by Prime Minister Hun Sen. ...