The fragmentation of land tenure systems in Cambodia: peasants and the formalization of land rights

ABSTRACTED FROM THE INTRODUCTION: This working paper is an examination of current land formalization processes against the backdrop of Cambodian history and the political economy of land and agrarian change. I... critique the land property right formalisation processes at play under the current land reforms. I present their rationales, mechanisms and influences on Cambodian peasants. I then detail the dynamics of land differentiation in the central rice plain and reveal how it has initiated a large migration to the peripheral uplands. I then go on to show how the contradiction between land appropriation by migrant peasants and the acquisition of large scale economic land concession in the same areas has resulted in irrefutable land issues. We conclude by examining the responses that the government has given to these conflicts in 5 the uplands through the land tiling scheme called Order 01. Finally a number of challenges and issues are presented as research questions or hypotheses for future field researches.

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