Indigenous
minority communities in Cambodia are traditionally located in Kratie, Mondolkiri,
Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, Kompong Thom, Koh Kong, Pursat, Kompong Speu and
Sihanoukville. The majority of Indigenous minority people live in the largely
forested areas of the north and north-eastern part of the country.
Several
international instruments have been developed with the specific aim to protect
the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities. The Royal government of Cambodia also formed the Inter-Ministerial
Committee (IMC) for Highland Peoples Development in 1994. This body developed a
General Policy for Highland Peoples Development in 1997. This document is still
in draft form. In
addition to this, the National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS) contains a
number of brief points with regard to Indigenous minority people:
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Ethnic minorities are disadvantaged due to lack of representation at the
management and legislative levels, and because of language barriers. (p.iii)
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Lack of access to law and rights is a serious issue, since the poor are
not able to understand the law, unaware of their rights and vulnerable to
exploitation. (p.iii)
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Historically
the ethnic minorities are not included in any policy, decision-making and
development process. They are therefore in many ways inferior in the society in
terms of status, position and living standards (p.123).
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However, little is understood about the ethnic minorities in Cambodia by
the majority, and by national decision-makers (p.123).
Land
Rights: Numerous
land studies have shown that Indigenous minority people operate a well-developed
land allocation and land management system that relies on communal decision
making through traditional structures. Individual land titling and land sales
bypass this system threatening the collective nature of Indigenous minority
communities and can create much poverty.
Provincial
governments in Ratanakiri and other provinces have been working with partner
organisations on programs to promote land security through community based
natural resource management. In Ratanakiri, this has resulted in provincial
recognition of many community natural resource management areas. This is a
positive step for initial land security.
In
2001 the Royal Government of Cambodia passed a new Land Law that contains
provisions for Indigenous minority communities to gain title to their land,
either in the form of individual titles or as a communal title. In this law
indigenous community land can be defined as residential land, agricultural land
and land kept in reserve as part of the traditional rotational cultivation
system.
Sub-decrees
that define the requirements for legal recognition of communal land ownership
have yet to be written. Therefore,
the drafting of this sub-decree should be encouraged. In the process of developing this sub-decree, there needs to
be comprehensive analysis in order to give full benefit to the indigenous
minority communities in terms of sustainability of the utilisation and
management of land and natural resources. The
Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction has already
implemented a pilot project in order to register indigenous community land.
A national task force was created which continues to work on the pilot
project. The task force is
supported by a consultation forum, in which the members of the forum can provide
input and positive recommendations as well as raise important issues in order to
facilitate the legal process in communal land registration.
In
order to inform the development of these legal instruments, 3 pilot communal
land titling projects are being undertaken (2 in Ratanakiri and 1 in Mondulkiri).
These need to be monitored closely to ensure that bureaucratic constraints and
vested interest do not strangle the process.
Despite
these initiatives, land alienation remains an alarming and growing problem. Of
particular concern are a proliferation of “land concessions” issued by the
government in provinces like Kompong Thom, Stung Treng and Kratie. These land
concessions aim at establishing industrial agricultural plantations – rubber,
cashew nut. They remove native forest and reduce indigenous minority people into
positions of subservience and poverty, their natural resources being removed
from their management and use.
Also
of concern is the continuing growth of land “sales” that involve
misinformation, coercion, threats, bribes to officials and other illegal
mechanisms.
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Information
about basic human rights, land rights and contract procedures is an urgent need.
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This
information needs to be delivered in indigenous languages with the active
involvement of indigenous minority people and indigenous minority organisations.
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This needs to
be supported by independent legal representation in land cadastral commission
and court processes.
Forestry
issue: Like all
communities using forest for livelihood support in Cambodia, indigenous minority
people do not have secure management rights for the forest areas they
traditionally use and manage. Land alienation means that indigenous minority
people have to shift their agricultural areas into forest areas. They are then
blamed for forest clearing. Forest concessions intimidate indigenous minority
communities and deprive these communities of developing their own secure and
sustainable livelihood support.
Indigenous
minority people are not entitled to extract timber for sawing, even by hand,
“because this is not customary use”. Indigenous minority people are
establishing community regulations to protect forest and feel discriminated
against by the “customary use” provisions of the forest law and its
interpretation.
A
Sub-decree on Community Forestry has been delayed for years and this may offer
more scope for indigenous minority people’s management and use. There is a
strong need to carefully monitor this to ensure that the sub-decree actually
serves the needs of poor communities.
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It is
imperative that the community forestry sub-decree implementation includes
community traditional management rights in mature forest and forest concessions,
not just degraded forest.
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Many areas of
forest, especially spirit forest, burial forests and small areas of forest
amongst agricultural land need to be included in communal land titling if
indigenous land management and culture is to be protected. Excluding these
forest areas will also have the effect of drastically slowing the mapping
processes required for communal land, reducing land security for the majority of
indigenous minority people.
Non-Formal
Education (NFE) – both bilingual and monolingual - continues to produce
positive results, possibly reinforced by the deficiencies within the formal
education system. This form of education remains literacy based and has had much
success, as indigenous minority communities have been given the flexibility to
manage classes at the time most suited to their seasonal and daily lives.
Another feature of the NFE has been indigenous minority people have been the
teachers and have been able to use indigenous languages to support Khmer
literacy.
On
the less positive side, post literacy NFE materials and classes remain seriously
lacking. These classes would be to support people developing their literacy
skills past very basic Khmer literacy.
In
the formal education sector, many schools remain understaffed or non-functional.
In many cases non-indigenous people are sent to teach in indigenous people’s
schools without adequate consideration of the practicalities of this. Isolation
from their families and culture, language problems and cross-cultural barriers
add to the huge absenteeism of teachers. In areas where there is no Non-Formal
Education little or no effective education is available to indigenous minority
people. This is within an environment of very rapid social and economic change
and there is a very large danger that marginalisation will be further
entrenched.
Hydro
Electricity Dams:
In previous years extreme problems have been reported as a result of
hydro-electricity dams located on the Sesan River in Vietnam that flow through
Ratanakiri and Stung Treng provinces in the northeast of Cambodia. The dams have
resulted in deaths from flood and irregular river flows.
While
these problems continue, they are likely to be increased by more dams already
commenced or being planned in Vietnam. These dams are being built without
adequate assessment of past impacts, rectifying the problems or first conducting
serious future environmental and social impact assessments. International donor
agencies and multi-lateral banks continue to support and validate their
construction by supporting associated projects like power line construction. In
this way large international institutions like Swedish International Development
Agency, Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Vietnamese government,
effectively undermine the lives of indigenous minority people in northeast
Cambodia. There are very strong local concerns that large-scale industrial power
generation and the model of industrial development that it supports have
profound and long-term negative impacts on the lives of indigenous minority
people.
Tourism:
The Cambodian, Laos and Vietnamese government have signed a “Triangle
Development Plan” which includes opening the northeastern provinces of
Cambodia up to rapid and large road access and extensive tourism development.
The Asian Development Bank has funded, via loans, the development of an
international airport in Ratanakiri under the guise that rapid economic and
tourism development will reduce property.
This
model, in relation to tourism, is however, based on the concept that indigenous
minority people will have access to and want tourism development. Without access
to education and training services it is unlikely that indigenous minority
people will be able to have sufficient voice in tourism management nor access to
tourism incomes. In this context, tourism could further contribute to the
marginalisation of indigenous communities.
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Tourism
development needs to be controlled and managed until barriers to sustainable and
equitable tourism development are removed. Current policies of rapid expansion
of tourism are misplaced and potentially highly destructive.
The
effects of this are starting to be seen in the form of dependency, loss of
community self-management and community disempowerment. Without indigenous
minority people being actively involved in their own development and without
local alternatives to the industrial development models now being promulgated
many severe social and economic problems can be expected to arise, as they have
in other indigenous communities in the world with similar conditions.
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A major review
of the impacts on indigenous minority people from different development
approaches is required.
·
The Royal
Government of Cambodia should as soon as possible take steps towards adopting
the General Policy for Highland Peoples Development drafted by the IMC in 1997.
This is essential, as Cambodia needs a National Policy for allowing indigenous
minority peoples to guide their own development. The impediments to ratifying
this policy need to be identified and openly debated.
·
Many
development visions being implemented in indigenous minority people’s areas
are based on economic development models and not following the
self-determination principles of the Highland Peoples Development Policy drafted
by the IMC in 1997 nor international conventions related to indigenous
people’s rights. A careful review of development philosophies and strategies
need to be undertaken to correct this situation.
·
Donors have developed
guidelines regarding the treatment of indigenous communities or impact
of projects on indigenous communities. It is important that the donors remind
the different actors and the general public that these guidelines and
operational directives exist and need to be followed.
·
In accordance
with their Operational Directive 4.20 the World Bank undertook an Indigenous
Upland Minorities Screening Study in Cambodia in 2002 as the Bank was preparing
a loan for the Rural Investment and Local Governance Project to support the
Royal Government of Cambodia's expansion of the Seila Program. It is also
important that the contents of such studies will be disseminated widely
throughout the country and that the findings will be taken into consideration
when making development decisions in indigenous minority peoples’ areas.
· The Minister of Land Management Urban Planning and Construction has started to pilot communal land titles in three communities in Ratanakiri and Mondolkiri provinces in 2003. Donors and NGOs need to play a prominent role in ensuring that Indigenous Peoples rights to their ancestral lands are not compromised in this process.
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For more information and the issues raised in this paper, please contact:
NGO Forum, Tel: 023 986 269, Email: ngoforum@ngoforum.org.kh
Non Timber Forests Products Project (NTFP), Tel: 075 974039, Email: ntfp@camintel.com
Health Unlimited Ratanakiri, Tel: 012 731396, Email: hurtk@camintel.com, RAMA@camintel.com
CARE Ratanakiri, Tel: 075 974056, Email: care_rtk@camintel.com