Mondolkiri Minority Villagers Divided Over Land Titles

15 September 2012
The Cambodia Daily
Agricultural production / Agriculture and fishing / Economic land concessions and plantations / Ethnic minorities and indigenous people / Human rights / Land / Land tenure and land titling / Public land lease / Social development
Bunong ethnic minority / communal land titles / ELCs / ethnic minorities / ethnic minority groups / land disputes / land measuring / Land titles / land-titling program / mondolkiri / property titles / Rubber Companies / Socfin KCD

Ethnic Bunong villagers in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Chreada district are bitterly divided over how best to protect their ancestral land amid efforts by authorities to map it in preparation for property titles. Bosra commune chief Yoeth Sarin said that since student volunteers-deployed across the country as part of a new titling program announced by Prime Minister Hun Sen in June-arrived in the commune in July, about half of the more than 1,000 Bunong families living there have had their land measured. The remaining 500 families, however, have refused to have their land measured as they fear they will lose their chance at receiving a communal land title, which is specific to ethnic minority groups such as Bunong. … The community is currently involved in a land dispute with French-owned rubber company Socfin KCD, …