The Indigenous territories include the forested plateaux and highlands of north-eastern Cambodia, where the majority live in the provinces of Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, Kratie, Stung Treng, Kampong Thom, and Preah Vihear.
Indigenous Peoples continue to face discrimination and forced displacement from their lands, territories and resources, which is extinguishing them as distinct groups.[viii] These patterns are driven by ongoing State and transnational corporate ventures aimed at resource extraction (mainly mining, timber and agribusiness) coupled with growing in-migration from other parts of the country. Cambodia voted to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples without reservation in 2007 and has ratified the ICERD and the CRC but has still not ratified ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.[ix],[x]
Restrictions on peaceful assembly and meetings #
During 2023, Indigenous Peoples experienced a continuation of the restrictions on peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. When meetings are organized, especially in rural areas, Indigenous organizations are asked to register these with local authorities. Police officers often then consequently monitor the meetings. In Mondulkiri Province, the police monitor and request lists of participants and the agenda of all community meetings. If Indigenous community representatives participate in meetings organized at the national level, the local authorities will subsequently oblige them to answer questions about the purpose and content of the meetings, as well as why they participated. Monitoring meetings is a form of intimidation that limits freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and creates fear of repercussions among Indigenous Peoples. For example, the Cambodian Indigenous Peoples Alliance (CIPA) held a national consultation in January and February with 65 community representatives in Stung Treng Province. The meeting was monitored by two police officers. In December, CIPA organized a national consultation, and 189 community representatives attended, most of whom were requested to report to the local authorities.
Collective Land Titles #
Obtaining Collective Land Titles (CLTs), a specific land right for Indigenous Peoples in relation to their ancestral territories enshrined in the Land Law of 2002,[xi] continues to be a prolonged and complex process. As of 2023, out of 488 Indigenous communities, only 40 had obtained CLTs, two of which were approved in 2023. Overall, 8.2% of Cambodian Indigenous communities hold a CLT. In contrast, economic land concessions (ELCs) for investors, e.g., large-scale plantations, are granted at a much faster pace, with approx. 25,990 ha of land having been approved for three ELCs by September 2023, making a total of 4.25 million ha granted to industrial agriculture and mining since 1996.[xii] In comparison, the 40 CLTs granted between 2011 and 2023 cover 40,732 ha in total.[xiii]
The procedures to obtain a CLT are set out in Sub-Decree 83 of the Indigenous Community Land Registration Procedures. In theory, the Sub-Decree provides Indigenous Peoples with legal land tenure rights, ensures the security of land tenure, and safeguards collective property while preserving the cultural identities, customs and traditions of Indigenous communities. However, the current zoning[xiv] restrictions do not correspond to the various cultural uses of land and water systems of the different Indigenous groups. The law inflexibly classifies and divides land, cuts borders, and limits land to small, constricted spaces. The Iand use of Indigenous Peoples cannot, however, be cut into small, restricted pieces; for Indigenous Peoples, the concept of land is understood as much less uniform and rigid.[xv] For example, article 6 restricts the types of land use allowed and limits the size of burial, spiritual, and belief lands to seven ha. In most cases, burial and sacred areas exceed seven ha. The Sub-Decree consequently is not acknowledging, respecting, guaranteeing or protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their ancestral land that are essential to the continuation of the cultures and traditions of Indigenous Peoples.
Moreover, the lack of legal protective measures during the prolonged CLT registration process exposes Indigenous communities to land encroachment while awaiting a title. This includes encroachment by individuals, as well as State-sanctioned encroachment by hydropower dams, mining and economic land concessions, as well as ecotourism concessions and social land concessions (land titles granted to non-Indigenous landless communities). Furthermore, Indigenous communities awaiting a CLT are exposed when Indigenous territories are designated as protected areas with strict limitations of access and use, thus excluding Indigenous Peoples from their territories.[xvi] The lack of protective measures erodes the individual and collection rights of Indigenous Peoples. In March 2023, 255 hectares of the Burang community, Orang district, Mondulkiri Province, was offered to an individual company. This occurred despite the Burang community having been in the process of obtaining a CLT for years and therefore being under interim protection to ensure that the land in question is not encroached upon by other interests during the registration process.
Criminalization of Indigenous Peoples’ traditional land use #
For centuries Indigenous Peoples have practised rotational farming as their primary livelihood. This type of sustainable agriculture has been increasingly criminalized by the Cambodia government. By law, rotational farming is an illegal practice within conservation areas. In June 2023, article 849 of the Environment and Natural Resources Code declared that rotational farming would only be allowed if Indigenous communities are in possession of a CLT. Accordingly, as of 2023, no more than 40 out of 488 Indigenous communities are allowed to practise rotational farming, which is likely to have severe consequences for food and livelihood security for the vast majority of Indigenous communities in Cambodia. In 2023, 93 individuals, including land rights protectors, Indigenous leaders and activists, faced lawsuits for exercising their right to practise their traditional farming. In 2023, 22 individuals were convicted of related crimes.[xvii] The lawsuits included charges of defamation, damage to property, violence against property owners, and illegal use of natural resources (i.e., rotational farming). For example, Kratie Provincial Court subpoenaed two Indigenous Kraol from Srae Chis commune for incitement to cut down and encroach on forest land, as they had allegedly illegally entered protected areas to practise rotational farming.[xviii]
Land grabs within the CLTs of Indigenous communities #
There is growing concern among Indigenous Peoples regarding the mounting strategy to further prioritize the private sector over Indigenous land rights. As natural resources become increasingly privatized, disputes over land are surging. For the few communities that have obtained CLTs to their ancestral land, the title does not necessarily guarantee a continued secure right to their land. For example, in Orang district of Mondulkiri Province, a Bunong community that received a CLT in 2012 for part of their ancestral land has been subjected to land encroachment within their CLT. The CLT of the Bunong community includes a pristine waterfall. On 20 April 2023, the Ministry of Environment (MoE) issued a letter requesting that three plots of the communal land and community protected area land be removed for individual titles. Consequently, part of the CLT surrounding the waterfall was granted to individual investors due to its ecotourism potential.[xix] The investors are believed to have ties to high-ranking officials. The land was grabbed without the consent of the Bunong community.
Surging debts in Indigenous communities #
Indebtedness among Indigenous Peoples is another challenge in many communities. Lack of land rights, land grabs, absence of access to forest resources, increased living expenses, reduced farmland, and a decline in crop yields have pulled many Indigenous farmers into cycles of debt to bank loans, microfinance loans, and private moneylenders. These challenges have created a vicious cycle of poverty for many communities that have relied on natural resources for centuries.[xx] As a consequence, some community members are starting to sell communal land to private investors or to participate in illegal logging out of desperation, while others find themselves in spirals of despair, leading to ever higher rates of suicide, drug use,[xxi] especially among Indigenous youth, and gender-based violence, such as domestic violence. “Before we were poor but we had land”, “now we are poor, in-debt, with no land”.[xxii]
According to Cambodian law, there is a ban on selling State land and, as stated in Article 259 of the Land Law of 2001, infringements of public property will result in a fine or jail sentence of up to five years; land cannot therefore be sold by either communities or individuals.[xxiii] And yet authorities continue to facilitate the unlawful sale of communal land, for example in the case of Radang Mountain on Indigenous land in Mondulkiri Province, where a mountain was sold without the consent of the entire community.[xxiv]
Amendment to the Law on Protected Areas #
In July, the National Assembly approved an amendment to the Law on Protected Areas of 2008,[xxv] the Law on Forestry of 2002, and the Environment and Natural Resources Code of 29 June 2023. The amendment included a change in terminology, replacing “Indigenous Peoples” with “local communities”. The Environment and Natural Resources Code is said to be replacing the 2008 Law on Protected Areas in 2024.[xxvi]
Prior to the approval of the law, the amendment was criticized by numerous Indigenous and international organizations[xxvii],[xxviii] as many predicted that the change in the amendment would render Indigenous Peoples invisible. The amendment is furthermore likely to discriminate against traditional Indigenous land management practices, thus criminalizing even more Indigenous Peoples. Submerging Indigenous Peoples in the undefined term “local communities” is likely to further deprive Indigenous Peoples of their rights, including both their individual and collective rights as Indigenous Peoples, especially their right to free, prior, and informed consent. The laws provide no clear definition of “local communities” and no recognition of Indigenous Peoples; it is thus expected that it will disregard the unique traditions, languages, religions and cultures of the 22 different Indigenous Peoples of Cambodia.
Prior to the decision, CIPA and 159 Indigenous community members from various Indigenous groups across the country joined forces to make a series of recommendations. These included: a clear legal analysis and recognition of Indigenous Peoples, a requirement to incorporate free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) processes, traditional knowledge and occupation, especially related to recognition of rotational farming, mechanisms for settling disputes, and a specific article in the law(s) enshrining rights consistent with international human rights conventions ratified or adopted by the Cambodian government, especially the UNDRIP and ILO Convention 111. The government rejected the recommendations made by Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, demonstrating a complete disregard for the principles of FPIC. Elders, youth, women, representatives, and community members who are decision-makers and collectively agree on consultations for legal input have thus been excluded from taking decisions on the future of their ancestral land.
“They want us to be Khmer, they don’t want us to have our rights as Indigenous Peoples, they want us to be invisible, they want to eliminate us.” – Indigenous spokesperson who preferred to remain anonymous.
Rampant deforestation in Prey Lang #
Despite government promises to prevent illegal logging in the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) – which consists of many Indigenous Kuy who patrol the sanctuary to prevent and document illegal logging – has stated that illegal logging is continuing unabated across the protected area. Some illegal loggers are reportedly armed.[xxix] The MoE has continued to reject reports submitted by the PLCN and international researchers.[xxx] In April, satellite imagery exposed the construction of a new road starting inside the company Think Biotech’s Economic Land Concession and extending 12 km into the old-growth forests of the protected wildlife sanctuary, the ancestral forest of the Indigenous Kuy, where they have collected resin from valuable tree species for centuries. After increasing numbers of protest there was a short crackdown on illegal loggers by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF). The RCAF targeted mainly small-scale loggers and, shortly after they had withdrawn, the presence of illegal loggers, bulldozers, trucks and tractors carrying luxury timber surged once more.[xxxi]
Indigenous Peoples fighting injustices #
Throughout 2023, Indigenous communities used various approaches to fight back against some of the injustices they are facing. For example, in Kratie, a station under the MoE was set on fire after a dispute between Indigenous Kraol and the MoE. According to community members, the arson was fuelled by growing protests against the planned expansion of the Sor Sor Sdom Sat Tao protected area and numerous instances of harassment by the MoE. Leading up to the arson, community members complained about harassment, encroachment of farmland, evictions of community members, threats of arrests, and damage to and confiscation of property by MoE officials.[xxxii] Moreover, community members were banned from patrolling their community forests, and they were prevented from collecting non-timber forest products and practising rotational farming. Alongside this, however, illegal loggers continued to transport timber out of the area.[xxxiii] There are plans to expand protected area by 4,500 ha, much of which overlaps with the ancestral territories of the Kraol. This will result in rotational farming being labelled illegal in the new conservation zones. The arson was a collective action carried out by 300 Indigenous Kraol community members.
In August, in Preah Vihear, Indigenous Kuy hindered the construction of a MoE cow stable on two occasions by removing building materials and dismantling the construction. These protests were fuelled by frustration at MoE officials who had banned community members from harvesting non-timber forest products and farming on their ancestral land within the Preah Roka Wildlife Sanctuary, as well as a plan by local MoE officials to build a cow stable and deforest an area for pasture within the same sanctuary in order to breed cows for the families of the MoE officials.[xxxiv] In December, in Preah Vihear, around 200 Indigenous Kuy protested at bulldozers sent by unknown parties to demolish their ancestral land. Kuy community members were furious at the authorities’ failure to end the destruction of the protected forests.[xxxv] Other protests occurred in Mondulkiri and Preah Vihear, where Indigenous elders performed spiritual ceremonies with the intent of cursing those who were harming and stealing their resources and ancestral land, including the MoE officials.[xxxvi]
The continued approach of the authorities to evict, displace, criminalize and exclude Indigenous Peoples from conservation efforts, despite increased international awareness of and emphasis, including at the UN,[xxxvii] IFAD,[xxxviii] and IPCC,[xxxix] on the critical role the environmental knowledge and management systems of Indigenous Peoples play in the current and future protection of biodiversity, water systems and ecological habitats for the survival of human beings, is beyond alarming.
Despite mounting attempts by the authorities and tycoons to silence, violate the rights of and reduce Indigenous Peoples to an invisible mass among the Khmer, the Indigenous Peoples of Cambodia will keep demanding their rights as Indigenous Peoples based on their customary rights and existing national and international law, will continue to show their value as key custodians of natural environments, and will continue to fight to keep their cultures, traditions, languages, and values visible and alive.
This article was produced by the Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Alliance (CIPA). CIPA is an alliance of Indigenous communities and peoples’ organizations, associations and networks.
Katrine Gro Friborg is a researcher working on Indigenous rights and knowledge, gender, agroforestry and ethnobotanical relations.
This article is part of the 38th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous man harvesting quinoa in Sunimarka, Peru. This photo was taken by Pablo Lasansky, and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2024 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2024 in full here
