Banong Families Receive Communal Land Titles
More than 70 ethnic minority Banong families from two separate villages in Moldolkirri province’s Keo Seima district received communal titles to a combined 1,031 hectares of ancestral land from the Land Management Minister Im Chhun Lim on Saturday. Communal land titles were established under the 2001 Land Law and designed to protect the ancestral lands of the country’s minorities from outside developers. But rights groups have criticized the slow pace at which they have been handed out. Saturday’s titles were only the sixth and seventh to be issued, with the first being granted in December 2011. … Chhor Lay Theng, a provincial land management officer, said yesterday that Mr. Chhun Lim presided over a ceremony handing out land tiles to two separate Banong communities from O’Rona and Sre Lvy villagers in Sre Khtum commune. … Mr. Theng added that the government would also deliver communal land titles to 102 families in the communes Ktum Village in June. … Originally, communal land tiles were meant to be part of the nationwide land-titling program launched by Prime Minister Hun Sen in June, but were dropped three weeks into the program as they were deemed too costly and time-consuming. …
