Donor-driven land reform in Cambodia – Property rights, planning, and land value taxation

Land poverty and emerging ruralities in Cambodia: insights from Kampot province

“…In Cambodia, availability of productive land is a central livelihood condition for the majority of the population (ADB 2001). However, the recent emergence of a global rush for land resources Scheidel and Sorman 2012;von Braun and Meinzen-Dick 2009;Zoomers 2010) has also affected Cambodia and is provoking processes of rural change through an increased overall demand for land: While the rapidly growing rural labor force is driving the need for smallholder land, land availability is drastically declining due to the large granting of Economic Land Concessions (ELC) to foreign and domestic agribusinesses, governed by the urban elites to foster tax revenues and trade flows (Borras and Franco 2011;Leuprecht 2004;Scheidel et al 2013;Thiel 2010). Since a large share of the population faces lack of access to land (ADB 2001;Ballard et al 2007) and pressures are likely to further increase through 'land grabs' in Cambodia (Licadho 2009) but generally also in other countries of the global South (GRAIN 2008;Hall et al 2011), it becomes crucial to better understand which measures smallholders may take to overcome challenges of land shortage.…”

“…In addition to a household analysis, we further illustrate how institutional innovation may serve as collective livelihood strategy at the village level in terms of the introduction of a community banking system to manage both monetary and rice surpluses and deficits, within the context of land shortage. Finally, regarding Cambodia's situation in terms of declining land availability for the smallholder sector (Leuprecht 2004;Licadho 2009;Scheidel et al 2013;Thiel 2010), some final conclusions are drawn from the lessons learned, regarding the future role of diversification for emerging ruralities in Cambodia.…”

Self-sufficiency or surplus: Conflicting local and national rural development goals in Cambodia

“…In order to promote such agricultural development, Cambodia was, and still is, in the need of a proper land administration system that informs well about land use, land users and land use rights (Thiel, 2010). Land use governance has experienced fundamental changes in Cambodia, ranging from private property rights and concession systems during the French protectorate and the subsequent regimes, over a complete collectivization under the Khmer Rouge regime (1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979), to the reintroduction of private property and land concessions in 1989 under the State of Cambodia (Fig.…”

“…After this, smallholders were encouraged to apply for formal land titles to agricultural and residential land, but the land administration was unable to deal with more than 4 million applications lodged, resulting that less than 10% of them were processed at the end of 1995 (Russel, 1997). The current land-titling process results in 250,000-300,000 new land titles annually; however, at least 12 million parcels remain still unregistered (Thiel, 2010). In addition to the land-titling system for smallholders, a system of Social Land Concessions (SLC) was established (Land Law 2001), aimed at providing land for landless, land poor people and other disadvantaged groups for subsistence and family farming (RGC, 2003) (Table 1).…”

“…In fact, the granting of ELC has widely affected Cambodian smallholders because of substantial problems regarding the allocation of concession land (Licadho, 2009). Due to the unfinished land-titling process, information on smallholder land is largely missing, resulting in problems of weak land governance (Thiel, 2010). It was estimated that since 2003, no less than 400,000 people have been affected by land disputes and forced evictions in only 12 out of 23 provinces (Vrieze and Naren, 2012).…”