Land disputes again on rise

A girl collects recyclables in September near a row of shacks where people evicted from Burnt Bridge Village in 2007 now live, behind Otres beach in Preah Sihanouk province. (Photo by: John Anthony)

Friday, 21 October 2011
Tep Nimol and Vincent MacIsaac
The Phnom Penh Post

The number of land disputes involving more than five households resumed its upward trajectory last year, after a temporary dip in 2009, a report by NGO Forum said yesterday, noting that in addition to the 28 new cases last year, there were 254 unresolved cases from previous years.

It said there were 18 new land disputes in 2009 and 48 in 2008, when the number of new disputes peaked. The report, Statistical Analysis on Land Disputes in Cambodia 2010, also found that land disputes most often occurred in area where economic growth was robust.

It follows three other reports earlier this month on evictions in Cambodia, and scores more produced by international and Cambodian NGOs since 1999, when NGO Forum published its first land-dispute report: “Where Has All the Land Gone?”

Statistical Analysis on Land Disputes in Cambodia, 2010

Statistical Analysis on Land Disputes in Cambodia, 2010.

Source: NGO Forum

In Cambodia, land grabbing is characterized by disputes over land between the rich and powerful, on one hand, and the poorer and weaker people, on the other, [and] has been a very serious issue over recent years3. LDs are a critical issue for Cambodia at present. LDs are caused by a number of factors, including infrastructure development projects in urban and rural areas (including Economic land - and other Concessions) which are being implemented by national as well as international companies and International Financial Institutions (IFIs), often with little respect for the rights of these communities who are negatively impacted. This could include a lack of tenure in the form of security for land, and a failure to enforce laws protecting peoples’ rights. LDs have increased dramatically from 2006 before trending downward in 2009.4 In 2006, 20 LDs was erupting. This number rose to 28 new cases in 2007 and 48 in 2008.

LDs are of interest to all stakeholders, including government authorities, development partners, NGOs and civil society as a whole. Given the consensus on the importance of this issue, many measures and approaches have been applied by various competent institutions. However, the impacts of these approaches and interventions through the results of the land dispute resolution processes have not been reported consistently across all stakeholders. Therefore, this annual LD analysis report helps by tracking LDs trends for Cambodia over the time, and provides an evidence base to support stakeholder concerns. It is expected that the results of this analysis will bring practical recommendations that inform and improve LD resolution processes into the future.

The aim of this annual analysis was two-fold, firstly (a) to highlight land dispute cases, providing an overview of its resolution process within 2010; and (b) to inform the public about the dispute resolution processes and its associated factors, which help lead to resolution.

http://www.box.net/shared/00vih9uldvxzmad7pkde

Boeung Kak Lake Lease Agreement - Some Questions for Discussion (NGO Forum)

http://www.box.net/shared/94itoukufk80ra79nf7q

Cambodia: Crackdown on Critical Groups Confirms Civil Society Fears of Forthcoming Ngo Law

Thursday, 25 August 2011
Press Release: IFEX

Organisations critical of a government project to rebuild a railway link that could displace thousands of families have been suspended or told to toe the government line, reports the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR). Critics say it's a sign of what's to come if a controversial bill that aims to regulate the country's non-governmental groups gets passed.

NGO Forum, an umbrella group of 88 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) whose donors include Christian Aid and Oxfam, confirmed it had received a "warning letter" from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over its concerns relating to communities affected by a railway rehabilitation project linking Phnom Penh to Thailand, which is funded by the Asian Development Bank and AusAID. The government said the group had made "false" and "unfair" claims about the deaths of two children relocated by the railway.

In a meeting last week, the Foreign Affairs Ministry accused NGO Forum and international organisation Bridges Across Borders of inciting families to oppose the project. The groups were told to "readjust their work in order to work closely with the government," reports CCHR.

Cambodian govt warns NGOs over letter to donors – paper

23 Aug 2011
By Thin Lei Win

BANGKOK (AlertNet) – The Cambodian government has warned an umbrella group of non-governmental organisations over critical letters it sent to international donors funding a $142-million railway project, the Phnom Penh Post reports.

NGO Forum, which groups 88 organisations, wrote last year to the heads of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Australia's international aid programme AusAID to raise concerns about the impact of the railway refurbishment on people living along the tracks who have been resettled.

The letters said two children had drowned fetching water in a relocation site in Battambang in northwestern Cambodia due to lack of proper facilities.

The warning, made in a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, comes at a time of increasing tensions between the government and a burgeoning civil society which has become openly critical of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

NGO Forum breaks silence on ‘warning’

Children sit on the tracks near Phnom Penh Railway Station last week. (Photo by: Hong Menea)

Monday, 22 August 2011
The Phnom Penh Post

NGO Forum confirmed yesterday it had received a “warning letter” from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over its advocacy on behalf of communities affected by a railway rehabilitation project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and AusAID.

The warning to the umbrella group of 88 NGOs had been issued over a letter sent last year to the president of the ADB that “raised some concerns in relation to resettlement impacts from the railway project”, a statement from NGO Forum yesterday said.

It said the forum had informed its donors and members and was “in the process of responding to this letter”.

The group’s donors include Christian Aid and Oxfam.

NGOF public statement

Press Release for workshop on 10-11 May, 2011 on "the Current Situation of Land Issues and Resolution Mechanisms in Cambodia" at Cambodiana Hotel

http://www.box.net/shared/8fdjg66seu


http://www.box.net/shared/hs74z0tpma

Press Release

Workshop on “the Current Situation of Land Issues and

Resolution Mechanisms in Cambodia”

Phnom Penh, 09 May 2011

On the 10th- 11th May 2011, The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC), the Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC) and the NGOs Forum on Cambodia with support from the EU Delegation to Cambodia, are organising a workshop on the "Current Situation of Land Issues and Resolution Mechanisms in Cambodia".

The workshop aims at providing some 150 civil society, government, provincial authority/court, and donor agencies representatives with an open forum for discussion and exchange of views on land issues in Cambodia.

The 2 days' event will explore and debate themes such as the principles regulating the grant of economic land concession, their benefits and impact, the principles for granting social land concessions and their practical implementation, the root causes of land disputes and resettlement as well as the mechanisms for resolution currently in place, the land dispute-motivated arrests and access to justice. Group discussions will follow with a view of identifying the major problems at stake and target recommendations.

Prey Lang villagers speak out

Chheang Vuthy, from Kampong Thom province, speaks at a press conference in Phnom Penh yesterday organised by NGO Forum in an effort to find a resolution to the Prey Lang dispute. (Photo by: Pha Lina)

Friday, 04 March 2011
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Representations for villagers embroiled in a land dispute with Vietnamese-owned CRCK Rubber Development Company in Kampong Thom province said officials have used intimidation to halt protests over the company’s development of an area in Prey Lang forest.

The claims were made at a press conference held by the NGO Forum, an umbrella group of organisations operating in Cambodia, during which representatives said local police have compiled a list of villagers they say are inciting others to protest.

Last month hundreds of residents from four provinces surrounding the 200,000 hectare forest defied police and local officials to protest the clearing of sections of the forest by CRCK.

Land grabs increasing (Pre-Press)

Eviction at Dey Krahorm (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

The government has allocated more than 1 million hectares of land to private companies in the form of economic concessions, many of which were illegal, resulting in forced evictions, lost livelihoods and lost natural resources, a rights activist has said.

“Natural resources, such as forests, mines and rivers play an important role in providing nourishment to millions of Cambodians. If they are mismanaged, it can negatively affect these people’s environment, livelihoods and rights,” said Chhith Sam Ath, director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia.

He said economic land concessions also frequently resulted in loss of farmland and loss of food security for the rural poor and ethnic minorities.

Thun Saray, president of rights group Adhoc, said that according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 146 private companies had been granted economic concessions.

During the past five years, Adhoc documented more than 100,000 people affected by development projects, he said.

In the first nine months of 2010, Adhoc received 270 complaints related to land rows, which surpasses the 2009 year-end total of 265 complaints

....read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours

Coal Plant Stirs Passions in Cambodia

Chhith Sam Ath, the executive director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia, says a proposed coal plant has not been properly vetted for environmental impacts. (NGO Forum)

November 25, 2009
By SIMON MARKS
The New York Times

Last week, executives from Leader Universal Holdings, a Malaysian company angling to build Cambodia’s largest coal-fired power plant, met with Cambodian government officials and environmentalists to discuss the company’s impact analysis for the proposed 100-megawatt facility.

There was little in the way of agreement.

The Cambodian government’s power development plan for the next decade includes the construction of nine hydroelectric dams and nine coal plants. Once operational, they will provide Cambodia with more than 3,000 megawatts of energy.

The government favors such large-scale projects, arguing it is the only affordable means for large-scale electricity generation.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, favor a decentralized energy system, where solar power, micro-hydropower stations and biomass gasifiers, for example, could help satisfy demand.

They also argued that a plant like the one planned by Leader Universal could wreak havoc on air quality and vastly increase the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“Particle pollution such as soot is one of the most deadly forms of air pollution,” said Chhith Sam Ath, the executive director of NGO Forum, an association for local and international non-governmental organizations working in Cambodia. “The soot can also cause acidification of waters, depleted soil nutrients and the destruction of forests and crops.”

Mr. Sam Ath also said the company’s environmental impact statement overlooked other areas, including wastewater disposal and specific numbers on how much carbon dioxide the plant would emit.

“As CO2 emissions are one of the leading contributors to climate change, the plant should study the amount of CO2 that will be emitted and be required to use the latest ‘clean coal’ technologies,” he said.

Company officials, however, said the plant would comply with all the safety and environmental specifications set out by international bodies like the World Bank. They also said emissions and wastewater would have minimal impact on local communities, given the $3.6 million the company had set aside for mitigation efforts during the first year.

The company also suggested that large-scale power plants were the only way to accommodate Cambodia’s growing energy demand.

“To be practical, a decentralized energy system will not provide enough energy,” said one Leader Holdings executive, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak by company officials. “Coal is the most economic way to generate power at this point.”

Jeroen Verschelling, the director of Kamworks, a solar energy company in Phnom Penh, disagreed, saying that Cambodia’s rising demand could easily be offset by greater efficiency.

“The first thing you need to do is see if you really need the energy,” Mr. Verschelling said. “A lot if energy is simply wasted.”

National Power Plan Outdated: Report

Click here to read the report (PDF 141 pages)

By Ros Sothea, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
04 November 2009

The nation’s power development plan, which calls for expanding large-scale hydroelectric dams and coal-fired plants, is outdated, expensive and risky, an umbrella group of non-governmental organizations says in a new report.

In its “Powering 21st Century Cambodia,” the NGO Forum instead advocates for decentralized electricity generation, rather than the large projects that can damage the environment and even increase poverty.

The 141-page report, written in English, advocates smaller power generation that creates local employment, encourages investment in rural businesses and can boost farmers’ incomes.

Smaller plans can include biomass gasifiers, gas-fired combined cycle plants, micro-hydro plants and solar power. These are built to smaller scale and where power is needed, according to the report.

“To support that large hydro [dam], the government is borrowing a lot of money in order to pay for the longest transmission line,” Grainne Ryder, the report’s author, who spent a year on its research, told VOA Khmer by phone from Canada. “The environmental damage is the most serious, and that is going to be the decline of Cambodia’s fisheries.”

“I don’t think the Cambodian government has even begun to realize the seriousness of those effects,” she continued. “So it could be quite a disaster for Cambodia.”

Ryder’s report notes that Cambodia has a chance to bypass the technologies of the previous century and to build its economy on the idea of decentralized technologies. It also notes that the “window” is closing, as Cambodia seeks more large-scale projects.

Electricity is costly in Cambodia, because power production currently depends on imported fuel. Meanwhile, only 18 percent of the population has access to grid-based electricity.

In an effort to do better, the government has proposed importing electricity from neighboring countries while building up hydro-dams and coal plants.

Since 2006, the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of Economy and Finance have approved five hyrdo-power projects, with 14 more under consideration, along with three other large-scale projects.

Dams would be built on the Mekong River at Kratie province, as well as on rivers in the provinces of Stung Treng, Ratanakkiri and Koh Kong, with investment coming from China, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam.

These projects are outdated, the report claims, because rural Cambodians need only a few hours of power each day, in demand far less than the large projects will produce. And while some countries have taken steps to avoid such projects, Cambodia has not.

Phay Siphan, a spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said the report was important and its findings noted, but that currently hydro-dam projects were a solution to an urgent problem.

“This is information that we have to pay attention to,” he said of the report. “But it is important to use [hydro-dams] to generate electricity, because we need electricity to develop an industrialized economy, as well of for people’s livelihoods.”

The report points out, however, that decentralized electrical power can cost less and be more easily financed, without the need for government guarantees and other subsidies.

And the government can promote it.

The report recommends, among others, removing import duties on technology and equipment for decentralized power projects (the government taxes solar power equipment 7 percent at present); introducing financing to help households, businesses and communities finance industrial-scale power generation projects over five- to 10-year periods; and opening the market to such projects by encouraging leading technologies.

Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum, said the group was ready to follow the report with further advice to government agencies, “to introduce to them more choices that can produce cheap electricity and not impact the environment.”

Cambodian NGOs, officials fight to ban toxic pesticides

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Dangerous pesticides pose serious health risks to farmers and consumers, say NGOs and agricultural officials who have rallied for a national ban, national media reported Monday.

Cambodia spends nearly 30 million U.S. dollars on chemical sprays every year, many of which are illegal in the countries where they are manufactured, according to the Phnom Penh Post.

Cheang Sovannrath, a project officer with the nongovernmental group Chemical Spray Reduction and Sustainable Agriculture, said the campaign, which included a march through Phnom Penh, aims to educate consumers about the dangers of chemical sprays and encourage the government to stop importing them.

"I think this campaign can sound an alarm for consumers and authorities to restrict the import of chemical sprays," Cheang Sovannrath said.

Meanwhile, the campaign is supported by the NGO Forum on Cambodia.

"I think if we don't start this kind of campaign now, we will face real danger in the future," said Keam Makarady, research project coordinator for the Cambodia Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC).

Ninety percent of chemical spray users have suffered adverse health effects, with at least 10 percent of these experiencing serious problems, he said.

New Report Launched on the Kirirom III Hydropower Dam

Press Release and Invitation to Press Conference
6 November 2008

New Report Calls on Cambodia to Set International ‘Best Practice’ Standards in Hydropower Development Beginning with the Kirirom 3 Dam

Phnom Penh - By building and operating the 18 MW Kirirom 3 hydropower dam in the best possible manner, Cambodia could set a new ‘best practice’ standard for hydropower development within the region, according to a new research report released today. The research report prepared by the American Friends Service Committee and the Rivers Coalition in Cambodia highlights Cambodia’s infancy in hydropower development and its ability to be one of the best developers in the world, if it chooses to draw on lessons learnt elsewhere.

By ensuring meaningful public participation, a full environment impact assessment, and that proper mitigation measures are in place, the Kirirom 3 dam may be able to avoid the negative impacts that often plague larger hydropower projects and destroy healthy rivers and the livelihoods they support in other countries around the world.

Located on a tributary of the Prek Kampong Saom River in Koh Kong province, the 18 MW Kirirom 3 dam was first proposed in 2004 with an estimated cost of USD 40.3 million. Agreement was later made in 2008 for China Electric Power Technology Import and Export Corporation (CETIC), a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned State Grid Corporation of China to
construct and operate the dam.

Changes to the river’s flow and quality, loss of common areas and private land due to flooding, and impacts to the livelihoods of surrounding communities are just some of the impacts that will need to be mitigated according to the report.

“When the villagers approached us with their concerns regarding the proposed dam, we had to admit we did not know about the possible impacts either,” said Russell Peterson, AFSC Country Representative. “That’s why we commissioned this study.”

In order to adequately mitigate impacts, the report recommends that a national public consultation on the Environment Impact Assessment be held before proceeding with the dam’s development. Guidelines outlined by the World Commission on Dams, which is widely viewed as the ‘best practice’ standard for dam building, can help ensure that decision-making is based on equity, sustainability, efficiently, participatory decision-making, and accountability.

"We encourage the government to hold a stakeholder consultation on the EIA report, so that affected communities and civil society can raise their concerns to the dam builder and government, in order to find ways to mitigate environmental and social impacts and compensate for lost livelihoods," said Chhith Sam Ath, Executive Director of The NGO Forum on Cambodia".

A Press Conference will be held at The NGO Forum on Cambodia’s Office on Thursday, November 6th 2008 from 09:00 to 10:30 AM, in order to launch the report and provide recommendations on how to achieve standards. The report’s author Wayne McCallum, as well as representatives from NGO Forum on Cambodia and American Friends Service Committee, and community representatives who will be impacted by the dam will be present.

The report can be downloaded from:
http://www.ngoforum.org.kh/Environment/Docs/mekong/Before_the_Dam_Kirirom_3.pdf
and from: www.ngoforum.org.kh

For more information, please contact:
Mr. Chhith Sam Ath, Executive Director, NGO Forum on Cambodia, E: samath@ngoforum.org.kh, T: +855 (0) 12 928 585.