Land Dispute Body Blames Concession Troubles on Ministries

1 March 2013
The Cambodia Daily
Agricultural production / Agriculture and fishing / Economic land concessions and plantations / Government / Land / Land policy and administration / Land tenure and land titling / Ministries and other national bodies / Public land lease
Adhoc / Council of Ministers / court system / deforestation / ELCs / industrial scale plantations / land disputes / Land Law / mass evictions / Ministry of Agriculture / Ministry of Environment / Ministry of Land Management / National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution / National Cadastral Commision / Prime Minister Hun Sen / report on land and housing rights / rights groups / Royal Decree / Surya Subedi / U.N.'s human rights envoy to Cambodia

The head of the country’s National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution on Wednesday said his authority was unable to resolve land disputes and that the responsibility for settling such disputes rested with the ministries responsible for handing out economic land concessions (ELCs) in the first place. Rights groups have singled out ELCs—granted to industrial scale plantations and other developers thousands of hectares at a time—as the leading cause of land disputes across the country, responsible for rampant deforestation and mass evictions. … In a recent report on land and housing rights, Adhoc said the 66 ELCs granted last year—half of them after Prime Minister Hun Sen put a freeze on new ELCs in May—lead to 55 land disputes and 232 arrests. …

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-dispute-body-blames-concession-troubles-on-ministries-12099/