Indigenous Cambodians fight for rights to ancestral land

Still from YouTube video. If video copyright is OK, presumably still from video is too. News item illustration.

Indigenous Cambodian communities are fighting to establish legal rights to their ancestral lands. So far, thousands have succeeded in establishing legal titles to traditional community land, thanks to a movement spearheaded by a range of organisations.

The United Nations, civil society and donor agencies are working together to assist indigenous communities to claim land ownership as a legal entity, with specific defined rights. So far 40 communities have been established as legal entities, providing 4,000 individuals with rights based on communal land titles.

View United Nations video about the Cambodian movement:

“Indigenous communities in Cambodia claim land rights”

Indigenous people’s fear of losing land

The world’s boundaries continue to expand through development.  Outsiders,  including international businesses, compete to purchase land which has been used for generations by local people.

Local people often have no legal title to their lands and fear losing their livelihoods. This project shows that local communities can fight back and establish legal title to their ancestral lands. Local people thus acquire a stake in modernising development and make their voices heard in decision-making which affects their community.

Video credits: United nations, 2013.