Gov’t to Award Three Communal Land Titles to Ethnic Bunong

Three ethnic Bunong communities in Mondolkiri province may soon receive long-awaited collective property titles, which would bring to six the total number of communal land titles granted to the country’s indigenous people since the Land Law was created in 2011.

And while the possible issuing of the three new communal titles is a significant- and long overdue- step forward for ethnic minority villagers, rights groups say that at least 200 minority groups also want the Land Management Ministry to issue communal titles for their communities. However, at the current rate of less than one communal land title per year since the Land Law was passed, some worry that many minority communities will not receive titles in the near- or even distant- future. …

Addressing the long delays for communal titles, Ministry of Land Management spokesman Beng Hong Socheat Khemro called the issuance of communal titles “difficult”, because the area of land that must be measured is relatively large, and “time consuming”, because multiple government ministries are involved in the process. …