Land Disputes in Indigenous Communities in Cambodia

The research seeks to find out the effectiveness of existing government conflict resolution systems for indigenous communities, to understand perceptions of the indigenous people on the enforcement of the system, to see how indigenous people and their traditional dispute resolution practices could be used in a conflict resolution system, and to gain knowledge of assistance that indigenous people need in order to participate and take the lead in solving conflicts. Conflict has increased intensively despite the government court system and the newly inplace Cadastral Commission (since 2001). The institutions were created as part of a system for solving land issues for the whole country, and they are directly put in place in the indigenous provinces such as Ratanakiri. Land conflicts in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia, have been occurring increasingly since 1996 in indigenous communities. The conflict involves mostly investors and powerful people who log the forest areas where indigenous people normally collect by-products to support their daily lives. Since 2001, many indigenous villages have disappeared, and more and more land is owned by outsiders.