Land-Titling Project Denied Minorities of Property Rights

Hundreds of indigenous minorities in Ratanakkiri province are being made worse off by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling scheme which, rather than securing their property rights, is contributing to the loss of their ancestral lands, according to a new report. The report supports complaints aired since last year by minority communities in the country’s northeast that the prime minister’s land-titling initiative, known as Directive 01 and launched in June, is depriving them of their rights to communal land titles. Produced by seven organizations, including the Community Legal Education Center and the Center for Study and Development in Agriculture, the authors of the report surveyed 79 villagers in Ratanakkiri province where indigenous communities had started the application process for communal titles. The survey found that 26 of those communities, or roughly 1 in 3, had all or parts of their land demarcated for private land titles under Directive 01, and 25 of those 26 communities were disappointed with the project and the private titles on offer. “One of the their most common reasons for dissatisfaction was because the policy did not secure their communal land, and in fact caused them to lose more land,” the report says. … Besides jeopardizing their traditional farming practices and very ways of life, Mr. [Chhay] Thy [Adhoc’s Provincial Investigator] said, indigenous families were worried about making ends meet without their communal lands and on the low salaries offered at rubber plantations. …

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-titling-project-denied-minorities-of-property-rights-19528/