Land policy and administration

Two women were arrested on Friday for allegedly breaching a court order related to an ongoing dispute over 1,000 hectares of land they live on along with 165 other families in Kompong Speu province’s Phnom Sruoch district.   ...

More than 100 villagers from Chroy Changvar yesterday protested a draft sub-decree that would make Phnom Penh Municipality the legal owner of 280 hectares of land that are part of the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation’s $3 billion satellite city development. ...

Activists have cast doubt on whether Prime Minister Hun Sen’s new initiative for the country’s problems to be solved through social media can tackle the country’s most pervasive problem—land disputes. ...

While vast tracts of Cambodia remain concentrated in the hands of a few and accusations of land grabbing remain rife, the broader distribution of land is more than equitable and could never lead to an uprising, the government official in charge of finding solutions to ...

Revenue from the property transfer taxes collected by the General Department of Taxation (GDT) was about $72 million last year, according to a report from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. ...

A bipartisan commission of National Assembly lawmakers arrived in Battambang province yesterday to investigate three unresolved land disputes before going on to Banteay Meanchey to investigate six more over the next two days. ...

Residents and evictees from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak and Bo­r­ei Keila neighborhoods re­turned to the World Bank’s country headquarters on Norodom Boul­evard on Monday to hurl eggs at the front gate and demand that the international lender leave Cambodia.   ...

Nearly 100 residents from Samrong commune’s O’Trachak Chit village in Preah Sihanouk province’s Prey Nup district gathered yesterday in front of the provincial hall to ask authorities to expedite the resolution of their year-long land dispute with the provincial Forestry Administration, according to community representatives. ...

After a seven-year struggle, a Banteay Meanchey teacher finally got $8,000 in compensation for her land, which was seized by the Cambodian military during a border flare-up with Thailand. ...

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. ...