Reporter1 – Page 2 – The Voices of Indigenous Peoples in Cambodia

Op-Ed: Indigenous Communities Lose Land at Perilous Rate Due to Predatory Loan Industry

A microfinance credit officer in Ratanakiri recently told me he thought Cambodia’s Indigenous communities would be landless in the next 10 years, as they sell off their land to pay off loans. His worrying prediction comes in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, when financial instability pushed even more people in the country to take on debt. Many local community members, including Indigenous communities, have borrowed money from banks and microfinance institutions to buy land, pay for medical expenses, build houses, fund farms, carry out religious ceremonies and pay school tuition. But many of these communities are struggling to pay back their debt.

As of 2022, there were 185 banks and microfinance institutions that were members of the Credit Bureau of Cambodia, including leasing companies and rural credit operators, providing loans to 4.8 million borrowers. The vast majority of the microloans issued in the country are held by just 10 institutions. In 2020, the average microloan in Cambodia was around $4,000 while the GDP per capita was about $1,500 that same year. Cambodians have more than $16 billion in microloan debt.

In Ratanakiri province, Indigenous community members are seriously concerned about the impact of the debt on the community, fearing the loss of land and the uncertain futures of their children. Around 80% of Indigenous families in Kam and Kres villages in O’chum district are indebted to microfinance institutions, with an average loan size of $1,000 in 2021, which has since grown.

The purported purpose of microfinance loans is to assist small-scale business start-ups, to support poor people in rural areas, to relieve families of financial burdens, and especially to advance the livelihoods of poor and subsistence-based farmers. However, many of these institutions have become profit-oriented and have implemented policies that violate human rights, including policies which result in pressured land sales.

Cambodia’s Pathway to Microfinance

In the 1990’s, in the aftermath of the long civil war, Cambodia started to rebuild its economy by launching economic reform policies. The financial sector played a key role in this process by fueling economic activities through loans, particularly loans given to people in rural areas. The banking system and microfinance institutions thus began having an increased role in the country’s development process. Many of these microfinance institutions evolved out of NGOs that provided microloans to fill in the gaps in the banking sector.

In 1999, the Law on Banking and Financial Institutions went into effect, allowing microfinance institutions to transform themselves into commercial institutions regulated by the National Bank of Cambodia. The Royal Government of Cambodia proclaimed 2006 as “a year of microfinance in Cambodia,” highlighting the role that banks and finance institutions play in alleviating poverty in rural areas and ensuring economic sustainability. Since then, the Cambodian microfinance sector has ballooned.

As of 2020, there were 10 financial institutions actively operating in Kam and Kres villages. The NGOs Licadho and Equitable Cambodia filed a complaint against six microfinance institutions funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. The complaint was filed to the IFC’s watchdog, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman. The watchdog is currently conducting its investigation, but its initial assessment found “preliminary indications of harm” to borrowers and violations of the IFC environmental and social standards.

Right to Relief, a report conducted by Licadho and EC, found that 90% of the Kreung Indigenous community members living in the two villages have fallen into heavy loan debt. These communities are dependent on traditional rotational agriculture, the cultivation of seasonal vegetables and cashew trees, and access to non-timber forest products for their daily livelihoods. On individual loans, community members use their housing and farming land titles as collateral.

Not only are there loan debt issues, but these Kreung communities have also been impacted by an ongoing land conflict with Hoang Anh Gia Lai, a Vietnamese rubber company. The company took over their farmland, spiritual forests and burial grounds starting in 2010 without prior consultation, which cut these communities off from their main sources of income, according to the NGO Inclusive Development International.

These issues have had negative consequences for Indigenous Kreung communities. Residents reported having trouble sleeping, not having enough food to eat and selling possessions and land to pay off loans. Residents have migrated to find work, and some locals report that children are working to support their families. In addition, the behavior of credit officers has been reported to be aggressive during their loan collection practices. According to the NGO Licadho, loan collectors have pressured community members to borrow money from private lenders and threatened them with arrest or legal complaints if they continue to delay payments.

“When I was five days late, the [credit officer] came to my house and said, ‘if you can’t find money, you will have to sleep at the police station.’ I was afraid because my child is only one year old,” one member of the community told the researchers involved in the Right to Relief report.

The report also notes that about seven families in Kam village had to sell their land to repay microfinance debt during Covid-19. According to a 2022 study funded by the German government, about 167,000 Cambodian households across the country sold their lands to repay loan debts over the five previous years.

Besides land sales, economic stress from over-indebtedness may be one cause of illegal logging activities within the community-protected area in Ratanakiri. CamboJA News reported that at least 527 Jarai families in Lom village, Pok Nhai commune, Oyadav district have borrowed money from financial institutions, with average loans ranging from $5,000 to $20,000. Residents reported resorting to cutting down trees to sell timber goods to customers across the border in Vietnam in order to repay their debts.

Potential Interventions for the Microfinance Industry

Without adequate attention to these issues and policies that can help to alleviate the loan debts, Indigenous communities will continue falling into debt traps and will face increasing landlessness. There are steps that national financial institutions, the government and international lenders can take to relieve heavy loan debts or to prevent individuals from undertaking debt which will harm them in the long-term.

First, banks and microfinance institutions should provide microloans to residents without them using land titles as collateral. The bank policies for these loans should be designed to meet the needs of the poor by providing a very small amount of money with a low interest rate. This system would assist Indigenous community members in improving their livelihoods, which often rely on natural resources, while still ensuring they can pass along their land to their children. With this approach, financial institutions should clearly define the eligibility criteria, such as very simple income-generating activities with outlined financial management plans.

Second, more training should be offered to microfinance institutions about ethical loan practices, with a specific focus on the issues facing Indigenous residents. The government should implement training programs that discourage predatory behaviors by credit officers, such as pressuring community members to take out loans or threatening people late on payments with legal action. As many Indigenous communities and Cambodian people in rural areas are illiterate and may lack financial education, the government, in particular the National Bank of Cambodia, could also initiate financial classes that inform the public on personal finance, business skills and risk management.

In addition, the government should consider implementing a debt moratorium for a certain period of time to relieve those who are heavily indebted. Thailand’s cabinet approved a suspension of principal and interest payments for three years for farmers last September, and Cambodia should watch the results of this measure closely to determine how such debt alleviation might work in Cambodia.

Finally, international lenders, such as the World Bank’s IFC, Germany’s DEG, and the Netherlands’ FMO, should strengthen their policies to protect human rights and the environment by conducting further research into this sector. Their policies must ensure that their loan recipients respect their performance standards and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and include strong due diligence processes.

Indigenous communities are some of the most marginalized populations in the country, and they deserve special attention and consideration when it comes to debt. They maintain traditions through management of forests, land and natural resources to make a living, and these practices have been handed down from generation to generation. Without a reexamination of the policies related to credit and debt repayment, they are at risk of losing their cultures, identities and livelihoods, along with their land.

Rithy Bun is a young research fellow at Future Forum who has many years of experience working with Indigenous communities.

E-Sak Ka Ou Declaration underscores Indigenous rights as a conservation solution (commentary)

The E-Sak Ka Ou Declaration calls attention to the key role of Indigenous peoples to (as well as the challenges they face from) climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation programs.
A word meaning ‘gill of the manta ray’ and released ahead of COP28 last year by Asian Indigenous leaders, the E-Sak Ka Ou Declaration is a reminder of what remains undone toward upholding the rights of Indigenous communities.
Commitments at the global level to recognize Indigenous knowledge and protect communities’ rights must also be reflected in regional and national policy frameworks, a new op-ed argues.
This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Read the full article at: E-Sak Ka Ou Declaration underscores Indigenous rights as a conservation solution (commentary) (mongabay.com)

Indigenous Kui People Block Outsiders From Clearing Farmland in Preah Vihear

On January 7, nearly 100 Kuy people from Bos and Preus Ka’ak villages gathered to prevent outsiders with tractors from clearing farmland. The dispute marks the second incident in less than a month of Kuy people from Chheb district fighting back against outsiders clearing community farmland.

Read the full article: Indigenous Kuy People Block Outsiders From Clearing Farmland in Preah Vihear | CamboJA News

Verra Opens Investigation into Wildlife Alliance’s REDD+ Project

An international organization accrediting global forest conservation projects has opened an investigation into the Southern Cardamom REDD+ project run by the NGO Wildlife Alliance and the Environment Ministry.

Read the full article at: Verra Opens Investigation into Wildlife Alliance’s REDD+ Project | CamboJA News

New Mondulkiri Airport To Boost Tourism, Economy But Deforestation Concerns Linger

The government has permitted private firm Focus Trans Global Venture Co Ltd (FTGV) to study the construction of a new airport in Mondulkiri province, northeast of Cambodia, as well as invest in a build, operate and transfer (BOT) model, the Office of the Council Minister said on January 9.

Read the full article at: New M’kiri Airport To Boost Tourism, Economy But Deforestation Concerns Linger | CamboJA News

Restored Indigenous Rights Will Lead to Better-Conserved Forests

Many of the Indigenous communities in Cambodia are primarily concentrated in the northeastern region of the country, areas which were previously covered by dense forest.

These Indigenous peoples identify as descendants of forest caretakers and have lived on their ancestral lands for thousands of years. Throughout this time, Indigenous communities have maintained strong ties with the forests in which they live through vibrant spiritual and cultural practices.

These Indigenous peoples have traditionally managed almost 4 million hectares of land and still rely heavily on traditional methods for hunting forest animals, harvesting non-timber forest products, including collecting honey and resin, and conventional rotational slash-and-burn rice farming methods.

Indigenous communities engage in a non-capitalist and non-competitive economy. Indigenous food production and livelihood maintenance methods have gone hand in hand with protecting the forests, mountains, lakes, and rivers that these communities honour as spirit gods and sacred places.

A group of Indigenous youth in a tree-ordaining ceremony

When it comes to the future of Cambodia’s forest management strategies, we should look to Indigenous-led, community-based methods, not just because these methods are suitable for the well-being of these communities, but also because these methods have proven time and time again to be better for the health of our forests.

The status quo

Over the past decades, Cambodia has adopted a range of national laws that relate to land management and recognition of Indigenous communities, including the 2001 Land Law, the 2002 Law on Forestry, the 2008 Protected Area Law, the 2009 Sub-decree No 83 on procedures of registration of land of Indigenous communities, and other international conventions that Cambodia has ratified as well as voting in favour of supporting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples .

Nevertheless, at the same time, under these legal frameworks, much of Cambodia’s forested areas have been carved up by economic land concessions (ELCs) granted by the government to foreign and domestically-owned private companies in various sectors. Under the 2001 land law, these companies could lease up to 10,000 hectares for up to 99 years. Human rights monitor Licadho states that at least 297 local and international agri-business companies have been granted ELCs covering more than 2.1 million hectares of land.

The companies that have obtained ELCs have used the land for a variety of purposes: for agriculture, for hydropower construction, for mining operations and more. Many of these projects have been carried out in traditional Indigenous territories and natural resource hubs, including sites considered culturally significant and sacred by these communities.

Research found that these ELCs have had an outsized impact on deforestation. Although ELCs contained roughly 16 percent of Cambodia’s forest cover as of 2016, forest loss within ELC boundaries accounted for nearly 30 percent of the country’s total forest loss.

The loss of this land has had negative consequences for these Indigenous communities, threatening Indigenous sources of income, causing landlessness and, perhaps most significantly, leading to the loss of religious practices.

In 2012, Prime Minister Hun Sen issued an immediate and indefinite moratorium on new land concessions and promised a full review of existing ELCs.

Despite this moratorium, new ELCs have been granted as of 2022, one to a local tycoon’s company for 4,000 hectares and another that appears to comprise more than 9,000 hectares to Korean company Horizon Agriculture Development Co. in Steung Treng province. While it is still being determined what company oversees this land, satellite imagery shows that large chunks of forest in this ELC have been cleared since the land was signed over.

Forest and rights advocates have long argued that these ELCs are not just damaging in terms of their impact on the livelihoods and ways of life for local communities and in terms of the conflict they create but that they do not deliver on their economic development promises, not generating nearly enough financial benefit to offset the environmental and social costs they generate.

There is a better way.

It is still possible to restore the rights of Indigenous communities while saving this land’s biodiversity, ecosystems, and forests. The best path forward is to expedite communal land registration for Indigenous peoples and to enforce these rights on the ground. These significant steps will also pave the way for the Kingdom to move closer towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, limiting global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius as stated in the Paris Climate Accords (2015) and enabling Cambodia to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Communal land tenure works

Communal land recognition is of the utmost importance for the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples. This system forms a significant part of what enables these communities to keep their cultures alive.

Nevertheless, it is also crucial to note that Indigenous land management systems have the potential to be transformational when it comes to protecting this country’s forests. Research around the globe has found that this type of forest management—decentralized and in the hands of local communities—has been incredibly successful at enabling forests to thrive.

For instance, research from Columbia, cited by the UN’s FAO, shows that forests collectively managed by Indigenous and tribal communities have been conserved better than other forests.

There are various reasons why this type of forest management is particularly effective. Indigenous cultural and ecological knowledge is central to these reasons, rooted and intertwined with Indigenous religious practices. This knowledge translates to better outcomes for forests.

“Indigenous and tribal peoples’ traditional knowledge about fauna and flora and their uses, pests and diseases, fire, climate, and soils, and how these elements respond to human practices, contribute greatly to forest management, use, restoration, and monitoring, and adaptation to new situations,” FAO explains.

Alternatively, even more simply, “People who spend more time in the forest and know how to get greater benefits from them take care of them better.”

Community management of forests elsewhere has also proved successful. Recently released research in Nepal, made possible by remote sensing technology from NASA [U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration], found that a 1993 legislation that handed over management and user rights of forests to community forest groups has since led to a near-doubling of forest cover in the country, from 26 percent to 45 percent.

“Once communities started actively managing the forests, they grew back mainly due to natural regeneration,” said Jefferson Fox, the principal investigator of the NASA Land Cover Land Use Change project.

As of 2021, 34 percent of Nepal’s forests were managed by more than 22,000 community-forest user groups. Under the rules set out by Nepal’s legislation, local forest rangers work with community groups to develop plans to manage the forests. Local communities have created projects that allowed the extraction of resources from the forests, like fruits and traditional medicines, and allowed the sale of non-timber forest products. Community members were also empowered to protect forests through local forest patrols.

At the same time, Nepal has shown that natural forest protection can be parlayed into significant economic outcomes, partly through financing initiatives tied to the health of the country’s forests. One project linked to sustainable forestry in Nepal has the potential for up to $45 million in support and another $24 million.

Strengthen Law Enforcement on the Ground

In Cambodia, Indigenous community members have long been participating in and advocating for greater control over forests to carry out their vision of sustainable forest management. However, so far, Indigenous-led forest protection initiatives have often had to take place in an unofficial capacity.

For example, Indigenous community members participate in unofficial patrols of their home forests to prevent illegal logging and fire.

Ruos Lim, a Kuy Indigenous leader from Chom Penh forest, part of the 242,500-hectare Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary, told Mongabay, “Day and night, we will lead our children and grandchildren to protect our livelihoods from all intruders,” adding later in the conversation, that “[i]n reality, we are the only active patrollers here.”

While Indigenous communities technically have access to legal, communal land titles through the 2009 Sub-decree No. 83 on registration procedures of indigenous communities, in reality, it is not that simple. The road to the collective land registration process can be complex, lengthy and expensive. From 2011 to 2021, only 33 communal land titles have been granted to 33 indigenous communities of a total of 458 Indigenous communities.

It is also important to note that the Indigenous communities are not the only groups impacted by land and forest loss. Aid groups estimate that more than 770,000 people have been involved in land conflicts between 2000 and 2014 alone. This estimate may not even include communities struggling with long-standing land disputes, such as those in Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri and Preah Vihear provinces.

Cambodian laws and the court system have provided few opportunities for relief, causing Indigenous communities to lose hope in judiciary-based and state-based solutions. “We cannot depend on the law; it is too slow,” says Kuy Indigenous leader Ruos Lim.

To guide Cambodia on a more sustainable track, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning, and Construction should expedite collective land registration for Indigenous communities and act in accordance with Prime Minister Hun’s recommendations made in December 2022 during the Ministry of Land Management’s annual meeting regarding a complete land registration system.

Second, the Ministry of Environment should expand the protected areas in Indigenous territories and allocate more funding to support the protection of these forests. The Royal Government of Cambodia should incorporate culture, ecological knowledge and spiritual belief into law, policies and decentralized forest control with communal land managed by indigenous communities.

Finally, legal systems must strictly adhere to court procedures and ensure that the Land Law and ELCs Sub-degree are used to deliver justice and compensation for Indigenous communities. By doing so, Cambodia’s forests will flourish, Cambodia will be less vulnerable to climate change, and Indigenous peoples will have access to prosperity, happiness, and forest stability for generations to come.

Rithy Bun is a research fellow at Future Forum and has many years of experiences working with indigenous communities

Cambodian Tycoon Companies Starting Approval Process for Dam Projects, Documents Say

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA —

Companies chaired by a prominent Cambodian tycoon are quietly starting the approval process for two dormant hydropower dam projects in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province, according to documents reviewed by VOA, alarming environmentalists who say the projects could disrupt Indigenous people’s livelihoods and the Mekong River ecosystem.

Lower Srepok 3 and Lower Sesan 3 are named for the major Mekong tributaries where they would be built and have been part of Cambodia’s dam pipeline since 2003, when the government began planning hydropower investments. Several Chinese companies pursued approvals for the dams around a decade ago, but the projects did not move forward.

Read the full article at: Cambodian Tycoon Companies Starting Approval Process for Dam Projects, Documents Say (voanews.com)

Can Indigenous inclusivity be the key to successful carbon markets?

Several of the extreme climate events throughout the world in the past year have spurred a sense of urgency among Indigenous communities who are the first to be affected.

Carbon markets, a popular mechanism used by global businesses and countries to offset their emissions, have been on the table during negotiations at the United Nations COP28 Climate Change Conference.

In a year that has seen carbon markets under growing scrutiny due to reports of alleged scams revealing that only a handful of emissions were offset instead of the massive amounts projected, Indigenous communities at the conference which ended this week were eager to be heard on how these could work.

Read full article at: Can Indigenous inclusivity be the key to successful carbon markets? | Indigenous Rights News | Al Jazeera