Draft of New Public Land Policy Is Released

The government on Friday released a draft of a new public policy guide on the county’s contentious land sector, a move that was welcomed by NGOs, who also called for the government to hold further consultations on the draft. … Local rights groups have singled out the abuse of the country’s land laws as one of Cambodia’s most pressing human rights problems, in particular the granting of economic land concessions (ELCs) to industrial scale agri-business firms. They accuse such concessions of grabbing land from hundreds of thousands of farmers over the years and causing much of the county’s deforestation. They also blame ELCs for an uptick in land disputes between local farmers and the concessions’ often well-connected owners. The paper does not set out any new land laws but offers guidance on how government agencies should apply the ones they have as “to facilitate the use and management of land and natural resources for socio-economic development in an equitable and sustainable manner,” according to a copy of the draft. …

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/draft-of-new-public-land-policy-is-released-20672/