INDIGENOUS PEOPLES/ETHNIC MINORITIES - … Characteristics ... groups to being disadvantaged in comparison with ... 2 Indigenous Peoples/Ethnic Minorities and Poverty Reduction:

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES/ETHNIC MINORITIES

ANDANDANDANDAND

POVERTY REDUCTION

CAMBODIA

Roger Plant

EnEnEnEnEnvironment and Social Safeguard Divisionvironment and Social Safeguard Divisionvironment and Social Safeguard Divisionvironment and Social Safeguard Divisionvironment and Social Safeguard DivisionRegional and Sustainable Development DepartmentRegional and Sustainable Development DepartmentRegional and Sustainable Development DepartmentRegional and Sustainable Development DepartmentRegional and Sustainable Development Department

Asian Development Bank, Manila, PhilippinesAsian Development Bank, Manila, PhilippinesAsian Development Bank, Manila, PhilippinesAsian Development Bank, Manila, PhilippinesAsian Development Bank, Manila, PhilippinesJune 2002June 2002June 2002June 2002June 2002

© Asian Development Bank 2002

All rights reserved

Published June 2002

The views and interpretations in this report are those of the authorsand do not necessarily reflect those of the Asian Development Bank.

ISBN No. 971-561-437-X

Publication Stock No.030602

Published by the Asian Development BankP.O. Box 789, 0980 Manila, Philippines

This publication was prepared in conjunction with an Asian Development Bank (ADB)regional technical assistance project on Capacity Building for Indigenous Peoples/EthnicMinority Issues and Poverty Reduction, covering four developing member countries (DMCs)

in the region, namely, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Viet Nam. The project is aimed atstrengthening national capacities to combat poverty and at improving the quality of ADB’sinterventions as they affect indigenous peoples.

The report was prepared jointly by Mr. Hean Sokhom and Ms. Tiann Monie, ADBconsultants based in Cambodia, under the guidance of Mr. Roger Plant, the leader of theconsultants team. The findings contained herein are the result of several activities underthe technical assistance, including a provincial workshop held in Ratanakiri Province on21–22 May 2001, and a national workshop in Phnom Penh on 13–14 September 2001.Extensive fieldwork and consultations with high-level government representatives,indigenous peoples themselves, and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) were alsoundertaken. The findings of this study were shared at a regional workshop held in Manilaon 25–26 October 2001, which was attended by representatives from the four participatingDMCs, NGOs, ADB, and other finance institutions.

The project was coordinated and supervised by Dr. Indira Simbolon, Social DevelopmentSpecialist and Focal Point for Indigenous Peoples, ADB. The assistance of Jay Maclean in editingand of Anita L. Quisumbing and Lily Bernal in production is acknowledged with thanks.

The publication is one of a series of documents produced by the project. They comprise fourcountry reports (on Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Viet Nam, respectively), a regional reportcovering these four countries, and the proceedings of the regional workshop that resulted inrecommendations for a regional action plan for indigenous peoples/ethnic minorities. In addition,a regional report on the subject in Pacific DMCs was prepared under a separate consultancy.

It is hoped that the information in this publication series on the issues and concernsof indigenous peoples/ethnic minorities will help guide national governments and otherdevelopment partners in improving future interventions to recognize, promote, and protectthe rights of these peoples.

ROLF ZELIUSChief Compliance Officer and

Deputy Director-GeneralRegional and Sustainable Development Department

FOREWORD

This report would not have been possible without the important contributions of manyindividuals and organizations. We would like to acknowledge especially the cooperationof the Royal Government of Cambodia, especially H. E. Ly Thuch, Minister of Rural

Development; H. E. Lay Prohas, Secretary of State, Ministry of Planning; and Seng Narong,Permanent Secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Ethnic Minorities Development, allof whom helped the smooth implementation of the project activities in Cambodia as well asthe preparation of this report.

Appreciation is also expressed to the many officials of the provincial governments and institutionsin Ratanakiri, Kratie, Stung Treng, and Mondulkiri, who in one way or another, facilitated the fieldworkactivities, data gathering and stakeholder consultations. Special thanks are due to H. E. GovernorKham Khoem of Ratanakiri for his role in organizing the Consultative Working Group and his activeinvolvement in the consultations. We are grateful to H. E. Bou Thong, member of Parliament, forsupporting the project activities and endorsing the project to stakeholders. We also acknowledge theassistance of Hun Thearith and Heng Kim Van who conducted the fieldwork in Mondulkiri.

The preparation of this report benefited greatly from the contributions of the stakeholdersthemselves, workshop participants, and representatives of international organizations,nongovernment, and indigenous peoples’ organizations. These include the Cambodian HumanRights and Development Association, Coopération Internationale pour le Développement de laSolidarité, Health Unlimited, International Cooperation for Cambodia, International DevelopmentResearch Centre of Canada, Non-Timber Forest Products, and the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme Partnership for Local Governance.

Hean Sokhom and Tiann Monie

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Foreword........................................................................................................................ iii

Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................ iv

Abbreviations ............................................................................................................... vii

1 . Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1

Objectives ...................................................................................................................................... 1

Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 1

2 . Indigenous Peoples in Cambodia .......................................................................... 3

Target Populations ....................................................................................................................... 3

Ethnolinguistic Characteristics .................................................................................................. 3

Location of Indigenous Peoples ................................................................................................ 5

Recent History ............................................................................................................................... 6

3 . Laws and Policies Related to Indigenous Peoples ............................................. 9

Cambodia and International Human Rights Conventions .................................................... 9

Ethnic Minorities and the Cambodian Constitution .............................................................. 9

Inter-Ministerial Committee for Highland Peoples Development ....................................... 9

Current Policies toward Indigenous Peoples ........................................................................ 10

Government Policy and Strategies toward Poverty Reduction .......................................... 11

4 . Programs and Projects for the Development of Indigenous Peoples .......... 15

The SEILA Program ................................................................................................................... 16

United Nations Development Programme ............................................................................. 16

World Bank .................................................................................................................................. 17

World Health Organization ...................................................................................................... 18

United Nations Children’s Fund............................................................................................... 18

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization .................................. 18

Partner for Development .......................................................................................................... 18

Médecins du Monde................................................................................................................... 19

NOMAD ........................................................................................................................................ 19

Médecins Sans Frontierès ......................................................................................................... 19

CONTENTS

Non-Timber Forest Products .................................................................................................... 19

Coopération Internationale pour le Développement de la Solidarité, Cambodia .......... 19

Health Unlimited ........................................................................................................................ 20

5 . Understanding the Poverty Concerns of Indigenous Peoples: Trends,

Causes, and Perceptions ....................................................................................... 21

Perception of Poverty in the Cambodian Context ................................................................ 21

Findings of the Provincial Workshop ..................................................................................... 21

Livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples ......................................................................................... 23

War and Poverty in the Highland Areas ................................................................................. 24

Changes in the Highlands after the First National Elections ............................................. 24

Education .................................................................................................................................... 29

Health ........................................................................................................................................... 31

Civil Society and Governance .................................................................................................. 33

6 . Asian Development Bank Experience ................................................................. 35

Agriculture Sector Program ..................................................................................................... 35

Health and Education Needs of Ethnic Minorities in the Greater Mekong Subregion .. 36

Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management in Greater Mekong SubregionWatersheds ............................................................................................................................... 37

7 . Toward a National Action Plan ............................................................................ 39

General Concerns ...................................................................................................................... 39

Education .................................................................................................................................... 39

Health ........................................................................................................................................... 40

Agriculture .................................................................................................................................. 40

Action Plan .................................................................................................................................. 40

Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 45

ADB – Asian Development Bank

ADHOC – Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association

CARERE – Cambodian Rehabilitation and Regeneration Project (UNDP),now called Partnership for Local Governance

CBNRM – community-based natural resource management

CIDSE – Coopération Internationale pour le Développement de laSolidarité

DFW – Department of Forestry and Wildlife of MAFF

GMS – Greater Mekong Subregion

HPP – Highland Peoples Programme

HU – Health Unlimited (an NGO)

IDRC – International Development Research Centre (Canada)

IMC – Inter-Ministerial Committee for Highland Peoples Development

IO – international organization

LAO PDR – Lao People’s Democratic Republic

MAFF – Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries

MDM – Médecins du Monde

MOH – Ministry of Health

MRD – Ministry of Rural Development

NFE – nonformal education

NGO – nongovernment organization

NTFP – Non-Timber Forest Products (an NGO)

PRA – participatory rural appraisal

PRDC – provincial rural development committee

RETA – regional technical assistance

SEDP I – First Socioeconomic Development Plan, 1996-2000

SEDP II – Second Socioeconomic Development Plan, 2001-2005

UNCHR – United Nations Commission on Human Rights

UNDP – United Nations Development Programme

UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganization

UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund

UNTAC – United Nations Transitional Authority of Cambodia

VDC – village development committee

WHO – World Health Organization

ABBREVIATIONS

In 1999, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approveda Policy on Indigenous Peoples in order toprovide a framework for its commitment to recognize

the vulnerability of certain socially or culturally distinctgroups to being disadvantaged in comparison withmainstream society, and to identify measures to satisfythe needs and development aspirations of such people.The policy focuses on their participation in developmentand the mitigation of undesirable effects of thedevelopment process, especially incidence of poverty.

The Government of Cambodia has also expressedkeen interest in strengthening its policies relating toindigenous peoples and poverty reduction.

OBJECTIVES

The two principal objectives of the regionaltechnical assistance were (i) to strengthen ADB’s Policyon Indigenous Peoples by a poverty assessment of thesepeoples in selected developing member countries(DMCs); and (ii) to develop, using participatory methods,an appropriate agenda for action to ensure povertyreduction for indigenous groups.

The specific objectives were (i) to conduct a povertyassessment of indigenous peoples and examineCambodia’s relevant national policies and legislation,programs, projects, and initiatives pertaining to indigenousgroups; (ii) to evaluate and assess the impact of ADB’sinterventions that address the vulnerability and poverty ofindigenous peoples in Cambodia; and (iii) to providecapacity building for government, nongovernmentorganizations (NGOs), and indigenous peoples so that theycan actively participate in formulating action plans as wellas in ADB-sponsored programs and projects.

The main purpose of this country report was toprovide a background document for discussion at anational workshop. The results of the deliberations in

the national workshop, including a proposed action plan,were later discussed in a regional workshop.

METHODOLOGY

Three consultants and two field researchers fromCambodia were hired to implement the project. Oneconsultant was based in Ratanakiri Province innortheastern Cambodia; the second was based in PhnomPenh at the office of the Inter-Ministerial Committee forHighland Peoples Development in the Ministry of RuralDevelopment; and the third provided support for draftingthe country report and organizing the national workshop.

The project consisted of two phases. Phase I, of 2months, comprised consultation with local authorities,indigenous communities, and international organizations(IOs)/NGOs that work closely with indigenouscommunities, and primary research in 13 villages in 4northeastern provinces—Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri, StungTreng, and Kratie—where indigenous peoples areconcentrated (Table 1).

Target villages in Ratanakiri Province were chosenin consultation with NGOs based there. They proposed 4communes in which villagers stated that the problems ofland and forest were very serious. In Soeung commune (2villages) and Kak commune (5 villages), villagers arevulnerable to land encroachment and land grabbing. InEkapheap commune (1 village) and Se San commune (1village), the consultation focused on health, education, andsocial effects of the Yali Falls dam. In Kamphun commune(1 village), Stung Treng Province, which was proposed forinclusion by the director of the provincial rural department,the problems were based on a general assessment oflivelihoods. The consultant based in Phnom Penhinvestigated 3 villages: 1 in the Romanea commune, SenMonorom district, Mondulkiri Province; and 2 in Kan Toutcommune, Kratie district, Kratie Province.

INTRODUCTION1

Indigenous Peoples/Ethnic Minorities and Poverty Reduction: Cambodia2

The results of consultation and primary researchwere used as documents for discussion in a provincialworkshop held in Banlung, Ratanakiri, 21–22 May 2001.

Phase II began after the provincial workshop,when a consultative working group was set up,consisting of 15 persons: government officials, NGOstaff, and representatives of highland peoples. Theworking group’s role was to (i) identify existinginformation on highland peoples and poverty trends; (ii)facilitate contacts with indigenous organizations; (iii)give advice on specific areas for fieldwork; and (iv)review the draft report of the consultants.

The study team continued the consultationprocess through fieldwork in four villages of Ratanakiriand three villages of Mondulkiri (Table 1) in order to fillgaps and consolidate the country report.

The villages chosen for Phase II have diverseproblems. In Tuy village, an area close to Banlung,environmental changes are taking place very rapidly.Kanat Touch village has health and education problemsassociated with radical changes in the river caused bythe Yali Falls dam. Siek village is vulnerable to landencroachment/grabbing. The Kreung (forest of spirits)ethnic group of Kameng village has been affected by thelogging concession in the area. On advice fromdevelopment workers, the choice of villages forconsultation in Mondulkiri was based on variousgeographic and economic issues.

The study team also used the results ofconsultations done in 1999–2001 in 6 villages containingKuy, Stieng, and Phnong ethnic groups in 2 othernortheastern provinces (Kratie and Stung Treng) by theNGO Partner for Development (Table 2).

Table 1. Villages Visited by the Project Team

Project Component/ Indigenous Number ofProvince District Commune Community Villages Visited

Phase IPhase IPhase IPhase IPhase IMondulkiri Sen Monorom Romanea Phnong 1Kratie Kratie Kantuot Kreng 2Stung Treng Se San Kamphun Brao 1Ratanakiri Bokeo Soeung Tampuon 2

Bokeo Kak Tampuon and Jarai 5O Chum Ekapheap Kreng and Tampuon 1O Yadao Se San Jarai 1

Phase IIPhase IIPhase IIPhase IIPhase IIRatanakiri O Chum Pouy Kreng 1

Andong Meas Talao Kachak 1Kon Mom Ta Ang Kreng-Khmer 1Bokeo Ting Chak Tampuon 1

Mondulkiri O Raing Dakdam Phnong 1O Raing Sen Monorom Phnong 1Sen Monorom Sokhadom Phnong 1

Table 2. Villages Visited by Partner for Development

Province District Commune Village Indigenous Community

Kratie Snuol Pir Thnou Thmar Haldeykraham StiengSambo Sre Chis Kantru PhnongSnuol Sre Char S’aat Stieng-KhmerSambo Kbal Damrey Sre Treng Phnong-Khmer

Stung Treng Se San Talat Rumpoat Kreung-KhmerSiem Bok Koh Sralao Pchol Kuy-Khmer

Ethnicity and Poverty 3

TARGET POPULATIONS

Indigenous ethnic minorities in Cambodia are calledvariously ethnic minorities, hill tribes, highlanders,highland people, indigenous people, and Khmer Leu;

they often call themselves Choncheat. For the sake ofconvenience, the terms indigenous peoples and highlandersare used rather than ethnic minorities. Indigenous peoplesis used in the sense of the ADB working definition (ADB,1999a) to include “those with specific social or culturalidentity distinct from the dominant or mainstream society,which makes them vulnerable to being disadvantaged inthe process of development.” The term highlanders is usedbecause most of these populations live in the fournortheastern provinces of Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri, StungTreng, and Kratie, which are considered upland areas. Thestudy focuses almost exclusively on these four provinces,in which the people are especially poor even by Cambodianstandards.

The indigenous peoples in the highland area canbe distinguished from their lowland neighbors not onlyby their long-standing inhabitation of the remote uplandforest areas but also by their distinctive religion, whichis associated with their environment, and by their useof semi-nomadic, swidden (slash-and-burn) agriculturetechniques (White, 1996).

The majority of the country’s ethnic minoritypopulation is excluded by this definition.

ETHNOLINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS

Cambodia is a multi-ethnic society with a majorityof ethnic Khmer. These include the Vietnamese, Cham,Chinese, and indigenous peoples.

Among the various ethnic groups, theindigenous populations, as the word implies, accountfor the most ancient inhabitants of the country. Thisgeneric and vague term is used to designate a mosaicof groups that are both heterogeneous—given someaspects of their material and social life—and alike,in the sense that most of them belong to the samecultural substratum, which is usually called Proto-Indo-Chinese civilization. Their religion and wholemode of existence for centuries has been foundedon their relationship with this environment. Theydevote themselves to a form of religion based on aspirit cult.

Although certain groups have a common originand have become separated over time, some peoplefor whom geographic and linguistic stocks are clearlydistinct, like the Jarai (Malayo-Polynesian) and theTampuon (Môn-khmer) of Ratanakiri, tend to drawnear each other and intermarry to such an extent,especially in Andong Meas district, that focusing ontheir differences becomes superfluous and arbitrary.Indeed, all through their history, the highlanders havemaintained close relationships with one another aswell as with the Khmer and other peoples in theplains.

There are two linguistic families within theindigenous population: the Austro-Thais (or Malayo-Polynesians) and the Môn-Khmer. In the first groupare the Jarai in Ratanakiri and a few Rhade mixedwith the Phnong in Mondulkiri. These two ethnicgroups are l inguistically related to the Chamsubgroup, to which belong the Muslim Cham ofCambodia.

The Môn-Khmer family includes Brao, KhmerKhe, Kravet, Kreung, Kraol, Lun, Mel, Phnong, Poar,Raong, Saoch, Stieng, Suoy, Kuy, Tampuon, andThmaun ethnic groups (Table 3).

2 INDIGENOUS PEOPLESIN CAMBODIA


Table 3. Geolinguistic Classification of the Main Indigenous Populations in Cambodia

Ethnic NumberGroup* Subgroup Group Family (approx.) Location

Jarai Chamic Austronesian Austro-Thai 14,000 Ratanakiri

Rhade Chamic Austronesian Austro-Thai a dozen Mondulkiri

Kachac North Bahnaric Bahnaric Môn-Khmer 2,200 Ratanakiri

and Chamic

Tampuon West Bahnaric Bahnaric Môn-Khmer 18,000 Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri

Brao West Bahnaric Bahnaric Môn-Khmer 5,500 Ratanakiri and Stung Treng

Kreung West Bahnaric Bahnaric Môn-Khmer 14,000 Ratanakiri

Kravet West Bahnaric Bahnaric Môn-Khmer 4,000 Ratanakiri (Veunsai) and

Stung Treng (Siempang)

Lun West Bahnaric Bahnaric Môn-Khmer 300 Ratanakiri (Taveng, Veunsai)

and Stung Treng

Phnong South Bahnaric Bahnaric Môn-Khmer 19,000 Mondulkiri, Stung Treng

and Ratanakiri

Stieng South Bahnaric Bahnaric Môn-Khmer 3,300 Kratie ( Snuol) and

Mondulkiri (Keo Seyma)

Kraol ... Bahnaric Môn-Khmer 1,960 Kratie and Mondulkiri

(Koh Nyek)

Mel ... Bahnaric Môn-Khmer 2,100 Kratie

Poar (Eastern Pear, Pearic Môn-Khmer 1,440 Kampong Thom and Pursat

Western Pear)Saoch (Saoch) Pearic Môn-Khmer 175 Kampot and Pursat

Suoy ... ... Môn-Khmer 1,200 Kampong Speu (Oral)

Khmer Khe Khmer Khmer Môn-Khmer 1,600 Stung Treng (Siempang)

Kuy ... Katuic Môn-Khmer 14,200 Preah Vihear, Kampong

Thom, and Stung Treng

* Other groups identified in 1995 for which no other data are available include Robel (1,640), Thmaun (543), Loemoun (280),Kola (31), Kaning (150), Poang (260), and Roong (in Keo Seyma, Mondulkiri).

Note: ... = unknown.Source: Bourdier (1996).

Indigenous Peoples in Cambodia 5

LOCATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

The predominant dwelling areas of the indigenouspopulations are in the extremities of sparsely populatedareas of the north and northeast—Kratie (Stieng, Kraol,Mel, Phnong, Kuoy, Thmaun), Mondulkiri (Phnong,Stieng, Kraol, Roong, Rhade), Ratanakiri (Tampuon,Jarai, Kreung, Brao, Lun, Kravet, Kachac), Stung Treng(Kuy, Phnong, Kravet, Kreung, Khmer Khe, Lun, Brao),Preah Vihear (Kuy), and Kampong Thom (Kuy)—as wellas the mountainous massifs in Koh Kong (Poar), Pursat(Poar), Kampong Speu (Suoy) and Sihanoukville (Saoch).These areas are mainly along the national borders ofViet Nam, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR),and Thailand. In contrast, the central areas and thebanks of the Mekong River are the domain of the Khmer.

The territories of some groups go beyond theCambodian border. The Jarai in Ratanakiri, and thePhnong in Mondulkiri and in Kratie, may be foundrespectively in the provinces of Pleiku and Dalat in VietNam; the Kuy, present in Preah Vihear and in KampongThom, are also in Thailand and in Lao PDR; and theBrao and Kravet in Ratanakiri are related to those insouthern Lao PDR. The border, imposed by the Frenchin 1903, artificially divided these groups and restrictedtheir movements to an area that was previously free ofadministrative control.

The lack of population studies leads to a difficultsituation in quantifying the number of ethnic groups inCambodia. Recently, the Government stated that 264,600people belonged to ethnic minority groups living in thecountry, or about 4% of the population of 6.5 million.The Cham, also named Khmer Islam, were the secondlargest ethnic community in Cambodia after the Khmermajority. The Chinese community, with a populationof 34,500, was the third largest group, and somewhatsurprisingly, the fourth largest group was the highlandethnic peoples called the Phnong or Mnong. TheVietnamese community was classified as the seventhlargest group. Until 1992, the ethnic Chinese andVietnamese were classified as ethnic Cambodiangroups alongside the indigenous minorities and theCham (Pen, 1996).

The currently available statistics on ethnicminority populations are based mainly on estimates fromdifferent government agencies and independentobservers and researchers. In 1992, the Department of

Ethnic Minorities of the Ministry for Religious Affairsstated that there were approximately 36 ethnic minoritygroups totaling 309,000 persons, which was about 3.5%of the total population of 8.9 million. In 1995, the Ministryof Interior stated that there were 443,000 ethnic minoritypersons, or 3.8% of the total population of 9.7 million.The Ministry of Interior includes the Chinese andVietnamese ethnic populations within the ethnic groupsof Cambodia (Pen, 1996). According to this estimate,the total indigenous ethnic minority population was70,000, representing 0.7% of the total population ofCambodia in 1995.

According to Bourdier (1996), the indigenouspeoples considered as minorities across the wholecountry reached 142,700 in 1995.

According to a 1997 paper (IMC, 1997a), the ethnicminority population was nearly 105,000 in the threenortheastern provinces of Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri, andStung Treng. However, provincial sources in the sameyear gave a slightly lower total for all four provinces inthis study—Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, Stung Treng, andKratie—of about 102,000.

The indigenous ethnic peoples found in Ratanakiri,Mondulkiri, Stung Treng, and Kratie represent about66%, 71%, 7%, and 8%, respectively, of the totalpopulations in these provinces. As a whole theyrepresent 1% of the total population of Cambodiaaccording to the Inter-Ministerial Committee forHighland Peoples’ Development (IMC, 1997a). Althoughethnic groups are found in other provinces like PreahVihear, Pursat, Kampong Thom, and Sihanoukville, theyrepresent only about 0.04% of the total population.

Based on the 1997 IMC percentages and 1998census data, the total ethnic population in the fourprovinces is 112,000. There are indigenous peoples inother provinces, but without precise data, they areexcluded from this number.

The term ethnic minority is a misnomer in bothRatanakiri and Mondulkiri because the ethnic minoritypeoples are, in fact, the majority of the total populationin these two provinces. These populations lived in theremote northeastern wooded highlands for manycenturies, while the Khmer Lao and Chinese have onlyrecently settled along the rivers and in urban areas ofthe two northeastern provinces.

The National Population Census 1998 identified17 indigenous groups in Cambodia based on theirspoken language. According to this source, the total


number of indigenous peoples was about 101,000 or0.9% of the then total population of 11.4 million (Table4). The census data do not include some indigenousgroups, such as Saoch in Sihanoukville, Suoy inKampong Speu, or Poar in Pursat.

However, identification of ethnic groups bylanguage may not reflect reality. The indigenouspopulation is probably higher than the estimate by theNational Population Census. Some people might say theyspeak one or another language as their mother tongue,but these groups are xenophobic and many, e.g., theKuy, Saoch, and Stieng ethnic groups who live closelywith the mainstream population, would not be likely totell outsiders their true identity.

RECENT HISTORY

The northeastern region of Cambodia, home tothe ethnic groups of this study, is a fertile and politically

strategic arena in which surrounding empires andcolonizing powers historically have vied for politicalcontrol and tried to exploit the considerable localresources. Such activities have inevitably affected theindigenous populations. The waterways of the Sre Pokand Se San rivers and their tributaries, which connectthe northeast to the rest of Cambodia and surroundingareas, have long played a vital role in trade andcommunications in the region, and have brought theirown influences. Because of successive waves ofinvasion by the Cham, Khmer, Thais, and Annamites,no centralized control was ever established in theregions during this period. For centuries the indigenousgroups had sporadic contact with Chinese, Lao, Thai,and Khmer traders in the region (both the Khmer andCham empires are believed to have been active in theseareas from as early as the 11th century).

In addition to the long-standing trade in goods inthe region, there was also a slave trade. Chinese sourcesin the late 13th century describe how the majority ofpeople living in Angkor were slaves taken captive from

Table 4. Indigenous Peoples Identified by Language Spoken

EthnicGroup Ratanakiri Stung Treng Mondulkiri Preah Vihear Kratie Total

Brao 7,132 207 14 8 0 7,361

Jarai 15,669 16 116 0 0 15,801

Kachac 2,054 2 0 0 0 2,056

Kleung 0 1 0 0 0 1

Kraol 0 0 320 0 2,635 2,955

Kravet 1,726 2,205 0 0 0 3,931

Kreung 14,877 159 5 0 0 15,041

Kuy 0 1 0 4,536 546 5,083

Lun 0 273 0 0 0 273

Mel 0 0 0 0 1,260 1,260

Phnong 367 388 18,036 39 3,166 21,996

Poar 0 0 0 316 0 316

Rhade 0 0 10 0 0 10

Roong 0 0 5 0 0 5

Stieng 0 0 536 1 1,612 2,149

Tampuon 22,128 13 70 0 0 22,211

Thmaun 0 0 95 0 619 714

Others 84 5 22 3 7 121

TTTTTotalotalotalotalotal 64,03764,03764,03764,03764,037 3,2703,2703,2703,2703,270 19,22919,22919,22919,22919,229 4,9034,9034,9034,9034,903 9,8459,8459,8459,8459,845 101,284101,284101,284101,284101,284

Source: National Institute of Statistics, National Population Census 1998.

Indigenous Peoples in Cambodia 7

the highland areas. This slave trade continued until the19th century, with representatives of the Thai, Lao, andKhmer empires raiding hill-tribe villages (White, 1996).

During the French colonial period, huge rubberplantations developed in this area, especially inLabansiek. Indigenous peoples were employed towork in the plantations and in construction work(Sugiati, 1997).

In 1959, the province of Ratanakiri was created inwhat had been the eastern area of Stung Treng Province,closely followed in 1960 by the creation of MondulkiriProvince in the eastern area of Kratie Province. Thisperiod marked a significant turning point in the historyof contact between the highlanders and the Khmerlowlanders, because the Government started introducingKhmer culture to indigenous peoples.

Groups of Khmer soldiers and their families wereposted to the new provinces to implement a generalpolicy of integration of the hill-tribe peoples into Khmersociety. Khmer from Takeo, Svay Rieng, and Prey Vengwere asked to settle in Koh Nyek district, Mondulkiri, inorder to constitute a model village called Phum SreSangkum. Several indigenous villages were displacedand rebuilt, e.g., the Brao and Kravet ethnic groups fromnorth of the Se San River were relocated along the riverto encourage lowland rice farming. Education andeconomic development programs were carried out thataimed to settle the hill tribes and transform both theirexisting methods of agriculture, which were consideredenvironmentally destructive, and their general lifestyle,which was seen as backward (White 1996). However,some villagers remembered this period very negativelyas a time when they “had to do like Khmer,” stating thatthey preferred the relative freedom they haveexperienced in more recent years (Bourdier, 1996).

In 1970, the United States began massive bombingin the area. The northeastern region was under thecontrol of the Khmer Rouge and became the scene ofbloody fighting, especially along Road 19, still called HoChi Minh road. Most villagers fled to the forest to avoidthe bombing. The Khmer Rouge ordered the inhabitantsof some villages to build bunds for lowland rice farming.

After the Khmer Rouge came to power, marketswere closed, possessions were confiscated, andcultural practices and speaking local languages wereforbidden. In Ratanakiri, some villages were moved toLum Phat, while in Mondulkiri, most of the uplandvillages were moved to Koh Ngek to develop lowlandrice fields. In 1979, many indigenous peoples, especiallypeople who lived not far from the border, fled to VietNam and Lao PDR.

After the defeat of the Khmer Rouge by theVietnamese, most villagers returned to their ancestralland and rebuilt their life as it was before the events.Many tried to continue rice farming. Because of poorgeographical location and lack of draft animals, somewent back to traditional upland farming methods.

The Government asked people to remain closeto the river and roads, not only to avoid the KhmerRouge but also to bring the indigenous peoples intothe mainstream of society. They were encouraged tostay in these areas and farm rice. At the same time,the Government encouraged lowland Khmer to migrateto less populated highland areas, especially inRatanakiri. This trend of immigration by the lowlandKhmer to the highlands, in particular to populated areassuch as Banlung and Sen Monorom, has increased andcontinues to the present.

After the first national elections, when thesecurity situation began to improve, some lowlandKhmer in Banlung and Sen Monorom begancommercial farming of kapok trees and crops such ascoffee and cashew nut. This has caused land conflictswith resident Phnong, Kreung, and Tampuon ethnicgroups.

The rich natural resources of the highlands, theforests and fertile soils, have provided opportunitiesfor logging, agriculture, and tourism that have attractednational and international investors. However, forestconcessions and immigration have increased thenumber of land disputes and led to reduced access bythe indigenous peoples to the nontimber forestresources. Their social and physical environment hasbeen damaged.

CAMBODIA AND INTERNATIONALHUMAN RIGHTS CONVENTIONS

Cambodia has acceded to a number ofinternational human rights conventions, suchas the International Covenant on Civil and Political

Rights, and International Convention on the Eliminationof All Forms of Racial Discrimination. By acceding tothese conventions, Cambodia is obliged to ensure thatall rights enumerated under them are realized for allpeople, including indigenous peoples, living inCambodian territory.

There are also two specific internationaldocuments with regard to indigenous peoples: theInternational Labour Organization (ILO) Convention(No. 169) concerning indigenous and tribal peoplesin independent countries and the UN GeneralAssembly Declaration of the Rights of PersonsBelonging to National or Ethnic, Religious andLinguistic Minorities. These will be considered forratification, because Cambodia is a member of theUnited Nations.

ETHNIC MINORITIES AND THECAMBODIAN CONSTITUTION

Article 32 of the Constitution of the Kingdom ofCambodia states:

Khmer citizens shall be equal before the lawand shall enjoy the same rights, freedom andduties, regardless of their race, color, sex, language,beliefs, religions, political tendencies, birth origin,social status, resources and any position.

In the debate on the Constitution in the NationalAssembly, the representatives discussed and debatedthe definition of Khmer citizens. It was agreed that theterm included some Cambodian ethnic minorities, suchas the hill-tribe people known as Khmer Leu and theKhmer Islam (ICES and Minority Rights Group, 1995).

INTER-MINISTERIAL COMMITTEEFOR HIGHLAND PEOPLES

DEVELOPMENT

The Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) forHighland Peoples Development was formed by theRoyal Government of Cambodia in 1994, at the sametime as the Highland Peoples Programme (HPP) of theUnited Nations Development Programme (UNDP) wasestablished. To assist and coordinate the ministerialmembers of the IMC, a secretariat was created. Atpresent, it is based in the Ministry of RuralDevelopmen. Current members of the IMC are theMinistry of Rural Development (MRD); the Ministry ofAgriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries; the Ministry ofEducation, Youth, and Sport; the Ministry of Health;the Ministry of Public Works and Transport; theMinistry of Social Affairs, Labors, Vocational Trainingand Youth Rehabilitation; the Ministry of Women’s andVeterans Affairs; the Ministry of Environment; and theCambodian Mines Action Center.

Indigenous peoples are present in many provincesof Cambodia. The IMC selected the northeasternprovinces (Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, Stung Treng, andKratie) as priority areas for development because of thelarge number of highlanders and diversity in the ethnicpopulations. At present, IMC is the main bodyrepresenting the Government in coordinating activities

LAWS AND POLICIES RELATEDTO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

3


with those national and international institutionsworking in the northeastern provinces of Cambodia. TheIMC has been actively collaborating with NGOs and UNprojects in the northeastern provinces.

Recently, the Government created the Departmentof Ethnic Minorities Development under MRD to followup IMC recommendations. The role of the newdepartment is mainly in short-, medium-, and long-termplanning of ethnic minorities development; improvingthe current draft policy for highland peoples’development; conducting research on identity, culture,and traditions of ethnic minorities in Cambodia; andproviding training for development workers incooperation with different local and internationaldevelopment agencies in the mountainous and highlandareas. However, the IMC is still playing an importantrole in assisting the new department and in monitoringand evaluating its activities.

There was a general opinion among thestakeholders that a well functioning IMC was of centralimportance. The Committee should take stronger stepsto improve the lives of highlanders through livelihoodinitiatives and in securing their use and managementof natural resources. The National Policy Guidelines willbe a basic principle to achieve sustainable developmentfor indigenous peoples. The Guidelines include therecommendation, among others, that highland peopleshave the right to participate in and to be consulted onall decision making, plans, and projects that affect theirlives and communities.

CURRENT POLICIES TOWARDINDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Despite the guarantees in the CambodianConstitution and the existence of the IMC, theGovernment does not appear to have an active policytoward ethnic minorities. Many constraints limit accessby ethnic minorities to government services.

During the United Nations Transitional Authorityof Cambodia (UNTAC) period, from late 1991 to 1993,and for some time after, there were debates about thekind of development that would best benefit theindigenous peoples in the highland area, but there wasonly a small group of IOs and NGOs working in thenortheast. Also, although there was local collaboration,

there was no coordinated effort to endorse theformulation of a policy for the development ofCambodia’s highlands.

In June 1995, Coopération Internationale pour leDéveloppement de la Solidarité (CIDSE) organized andcoordinated an international seminar in Phnom Penhon Sustainable Development in Northeast Cambodia.The seminar was sponsored by MRD and the IMC andraised a number of policy recommendations.

In February–March 1996, the InternationalDevelopment Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada,Cambodian Rehabilitation and Regeneration Project(CARERE), CIDSE, Health Unlimited (HU), and Oxfamjointly organized an International Seminar onSustainable Development in Northeast Cambodia, heldin Banlung, Ratanakiri. That seminar produced a draftpolicy document, which has been refined and furtherdeveloped with assistance from the HPP and a task forceof IOs and NGOs interested in the area.

In 1997, the IMC submitted to the Governmentdraft general policy guidelines for development ofhighland peoples. The draft was the result of a series ofworkshops, held in Cambodia and in Thailand in theHPP Phase I.

The IMC general policy was drafted to respond tothe needs of indigenous peoples in protecting theirrights, culture, and natural resources, as well as forsustainable development in the area. The policy isexpected to be used as guidelines for highland peoples’development. The draft policy states that all highlandershave the right to practice their own cultures, adhere totheir own belief systems and traditions, and use theirown languages; further, the Government should stronglyencourage and support local organizations orassociations established by highland peoples. In all legaland administrative matters, all persons belonging tohighland communities and living in Cambodia shouldbe considered and treated as Cambodian citizens, withthe same rights and duties (IMC, 1997b). This essentiallyconfirms the intent of the Cambodian Constitution. Thedraft IMC general policy also includes policy guidelinefor highland peoples’ development in different domains,from environment to infrastructure.

Unfortunately, the IMC draft policy has not beenapproved by the Council of Ministers yet. The mainconstraint is that many statements of the general policyrelate to traditional land and forest use rights ofindigenous peoples, and such rights were not

Laws and Policies Related to Indigenous Peoples 11

guaranteed by the Land Law or Forest Law at the timeof submission of the policy. However, the Land Lawwas approved by the Parliament and Senate in July andAugust 2001, respectively, and signed by the King on30 August 2001; the Forest Law has been approved bythe Council of Ministers and sent to the NationalAssembly for approval.

GOVERNMENT POLICY ANDSTRATEGIES TOWARDPOVERTY REDUCTION

First Socioeconomic Development Plan(1996–2000)

The Government has been taking povertyreduction into account since its formation after the 1993national elections. Poverty reduction is included in thenational First Socioeconomic Development Plan (SEDPI, 1996–2000), which was prepared and implementedwithin the context of a new market orientation ofeconomic activities.

SEDP I focused on improvement in the formalhealth and education systems, rural water supply, andsanitation programs by the year 2000. A review of SEDP Ishowed progress and positive impact; however, it didnot provide adequately for monitoring and evaluationof plan implementation, and a more consultative andparticipation process has been found desirable.

After the second national election, in 1998, theGovernment introduced the “Triangle Strategy” thatfocused on economic development as a tool againstpoverty. The three angles of the strategy are (i) restoringstability and maintaining security in the country;(ii) integrating Cambodia into the region andnormalizing relationships with the internationalcommunity; and (iii) introducing a governmentprogram of reforms in the armed forces, publicadministration, the judiciary, and the economy.

Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

The government’s poverty reduction policy isintended to provide opportunities and security for thepoor, to strengthen their capability, and to empower

them. The Government has identified the poor as peoplelacking income-generating opportunities, those who arevulnerable (isolated ethnic minorities are included inthe vulnerability definition), those with low capabilities,and those who are excluded from society.

The government policy toward these fourdimensions of poverty seeks to

• promote opportunities through stabilizing themacro-economy, promoting private-sectordevelopment, improving infrastructure, andimplementing land-use policies;

• create security by providing access to microcreditfor the poor, protecting the environment, andclearing land mines;

• strengthen capabilities through increasing publicspending on health, education, agriculture, andrural development; and

• generate empowerment by improving thegovernance system, combating corruption,improving law enforcement, and fostering anenabling environment for NGOs.

Socioeconomic Development Plan II(2001–2005)

The Socioeconomic Development Plan II (SEDPII) was developed by incorporating the key findingsfrom SEDP I and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper,as well as the results of a nationwide ParticipatoryPoverty Assessment and consultation with manystakeholders.

SEDP II requires the achievement of fourdevelopment objectives: broad-based, sustainableeconomic growth with equity at a rate of 6%–7% peryear; social and cultural development; the sustainablemanagement and use of natural resources and theenvironment; and improvement in governance. SEDP IIalso contains sectoral plans in agriculture, ruraldevelopment, health, and education, which will achievesynergy in contributing to poverty reduction.

Specific strategies related to indigenous peoplesinclude building or rehabilitation of the main roadinfrastructure; promoting agricultural development and


off-farm employment in both urban and rural areas;and empowering the poor to participate in and benefitfrom the growth process by improving their access tonatural assets such as land, health and educationservices, appropriate technology, and credit.

Laws Relevant to Poverty Reduction ofIndigenous Peoples

In accordance with the poverty reduction policy,the Government has adopted governance reform,including juridical and legal reform aimed to establishfairness and predictability of the basic rules.

Land Law

Among the legislation and policies governingland use in Cambodia before 2001 are the Land Law,passed by the State of Cambodia on 11 August 1992and the “Enforcing Instruction No. 3 of the Principlefor Possession and Use of the Lands,” passed by theCouncil of Ministers on 3 June 1989. In addition, 1989subdecree No. 25 provides for ownership rights overresidential housing.

Under the system from 1989 to 1992, people whohad occupied property for at least one year could applyfor certificates for the right to occupy and use the land.The applicant would fill out a form, identifyingneighbors on all sides, which would be signed by thecommune or district chief. A temporary receipt wouldthen be issued for possession.

In 1990, the State of Cambodia created a CadastralDepartment, which was initially under theadministration of the Ministry of Agriculture and thendirectly under the Council of Ministers. A newapplication form was created for people to apply for newcertificates of possession, not only for residential land,but also for agricultural land.

The 1992 Land Law is mainly based on the cultureand land-use practices of lowland Cambodians and doesnot reflect the communal land management practicesof indigenous highland peoples. In response toincreasing concerns being raised on highland landissues, a workshop on “Land Security for EthnicMinorities in Northeast Cambodia” was held in March1997 in Ratanakiri. The central theme of the workshopwas how to provide security of land tenure for swidden

farmers under the existing 1992 law and the presentdevelopment situation. The discussion raised twomodels for land security: individual and communal landtitles.

Meetings/workshops were held at the grassroots,provincial, and national levels between 1995 and 1999.Participation of indigenous communities enabled themto contribute ideas and empowered them towarddecision making and self-determination. The meetingshelped build relationships between indigenouscommunities and government structure. Mostdiscussions at the meetings focused on the security ofland use and the sustainability of forest use forindigenous communities. The main thrust of therecommendations was that the land tenure rights ofindigenous communities should be recognized by thenational Government.

In order to make sure that recommendations fromthe many meetings between 1995 and 1999 would berecognized in law, two working groups of IOs and NGOs,one at the provincial and one at the national level, wereestablished (in 1998).

The provincial working group, based in Ratanakiri,consisted of local authorities, UNDP/CARERE, IDRC,Non-Timber Forest Products, ADHOC, CIDSE, and HU,and had three important roles:

• to collect and study information on traditional landand forest use by indigenous communities;

• to collect feedback from indigenous communitiesfor discussion and verification on appropriatesolutions on land and forest issues for indigenouscommunities, and how these can be covered inthe Land Law; and

• to ensure that the report from all consultations isproperly endorsed for presentation at the nationallevel.

The working group in Phnom Penh, consisting ofOxfam, Asia Foundation, the United NationsCommission on Human Rights (UNHCR), and Legal Aidof Cambodia, worked with a UNDP legal consultant todraft a section of land rights for indigenous communitiesto be included in the land law. The ideas for this sectionarose from the participation of the working groups andthe UNDP legal consultant in the workshops.


In March 1999, IMC organized a nationalworkshop on “Land Use and Management of Land andForest Resources of Highland Communities inNortheast Cambodia,” the objectives of which were(i) to explain the situation related to land use and landmanagement, as well as the use of natural resourcesby the highland communities in northeast Cambodia;(ii) to highlight the strategies for providing security inthe process of using natural resources and landappropriate to the needs of highland communities andto the development principles of the Government; and(iii) to analyze existing laws for contributions to thesecurity of highland communities in their use ofnatural resources.

On 29 March 1999, during a meeting withrepresentatives of the Council of Ministers, it wasagreed that a chapter on indigenous peoples’ landrights could be included in the revised Land Law.Working group members consulted again with localcommunities and met several times with an ADBconsultant team. In February 2000, the ADB Land Lawconsultant team agreed on the draft chapter on landrights for indigenous communities and on submittingit to the Government.

In late 2000, the Government set up a Councilfor Land Management Policy and issued its Statementon Land Policy. The objectives of the Statement were(i) strengthening land tenure security and land markets,and prevention of or solving land disputes;(ii) managing land and natural resources in anequitable, sustainable, and efficient manner; and(iii) promoting land distribution with equity.

After an intensive period of study and publicdebate, an ADB-funded draft Land Law was approvedby the National Assembly and the Senate and signedby the King (August 2001). The law includes a specialsection on “immovable properties of indigenous ethnicminorities”1 consisting of six articles, protecting therights of indigenous peoples in accessing theirtraditional land.

The first article (art.23) concerns the definitionof indigenous communities. The definition ofindigenous ethnic minorities excludes some ethnicgroups that do not use land collectively.

The second article (art.24) defines membership ofan indigenous community.

The third article (art. 25) concerns the lands ofthese communities, which are those lands where thesaid communities have established their residenceand/or where they carry out agricultural activities. Theyinclude not only lands actually cultivated but alsoreserved land (current fallow areas) and land forrotation of upland fields as required by the agriculturalmethods they currently practice. The extent of theselands derives from the current factual situation asdetermined by testimonies of the communitiesthemselves and of neighboring communities, a processthat has been mediated and endorsed by the localadministrative authorities.

The fourth article (art. 26) defines the collectiveownership of immovable property of indigenous peoplesand its management:

Ownership of the immovable propertiesdescribed in Article 25 is granted by the State tothe indigenous communities as collectiveownership. This collective ownership includes allof the rights and protections of ownership as areenjoyed by private owners. But the communitydoes not have the right to dispose of any collectiveownership that is State public property to anyperson or group.

The exercise of all ownership rights relatedto immovable properties of a community and thespecific conditions of the land use shall be subjectto the responsibility of the traditional authoritiesand mechanisms for decision-making of thecommunity, according to their customs, and shallbe subject to the laws of general enforcementrelated to immovable properties, such as the lawon environmental protection.

The fifth article (art. 27) is about the right ofindividual ownership of an adequate share of land usedby the community:

For the purposes of facilitating the cultural,economic and social evolution of members of

Unofficial translation of Land Law 2001 prepared by the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning, and Construction.1


indigenous communities and in order to allow suchmembers to freely leave the group or to be relievedfrom its constraints, the right of individualownership of an adequate share of land used bythe community may be transferred to them.

Immovable property that is subject to suchprivate individual ownership cannot fall under thegeneral definition of public properties of the State.

The last article (art. 28) describes the absoluteright of indigenous peoples to immovable property:

No authority outside the community mayacquire any rights to immovable propertiesbelonging to an indigenous community.

Forestry Law

The most significant provisions in the Forestry Lawapplicable to concession management and control arethe following.

• Decree (Kret) No. 35 KR.C. of 25 June 1988 (aboutrules of harvesting and transportation of forestproducts as well as the institutions that carry outthe control and permission tasks).

• Regulation (Prakas) No. 049 SSR of September1986 (on conditions of harvesting).

• Regulation (Prakas) No. 035 SSR of 30 May 1988(on forest clearing conditions).

• Decree (Kret) No. 11 of 20 May 1991 (on rights forharvesting forest products).

• Decision (Sechkdei Samrech) No. 05 of 7 January 1995(on conditions for export of logs and sawn timber).

• Declaration No.02 DRGC of 26 December 1996(further defined by the Ministry of Agriculture,Forestry, and Fishery (MAFF) Declaration No. 074of 26 February 1997) (on prohibition on exportinglogs and sawn timber and the permission to doso, referring to a January 1995 Decision).

• Government Order No. 5 of 1997 (on theabolishment of issuance of collection permits).

• Government Order of January 1999 (onelimination of illegal forest activities andestablishment of the forest enforcement system).

• Subdecree on concession management No. 5, 7February 2000 (on the establishment of the basisfor requiring concessions to be managed in asustainable manner).

Contributions to the Forestry Law were made byADB, the World Bank, and NGOs. With technicalassistance from ADB (Sustainable Forest ManagementProject), the Department of Forestry and Wildlife (DFW)under MAFF prepared a draft Forest Law in 1999,building on an earlier draft made with help from theFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.MAFF reviewed the draft Forest Law following severalpublic forums and consultations.

The World Bank’s involvement in the forest sectorincluded the Bank-led Forest Policy Assessment of1996, the Bank-financed Technical Assistance Projectof 1997–1998, as well as a part of the structuraladjustment credit program linked to the drafting of theForestry Law.

The draft Forest Law has been approved by theCouncil of Ministers and sent for approval from theNational Assembly. Although customary users’ rightsare protected, two main problems remain:(i) community forestry shall be demarcated andmanaged according to a specific plan to be approvedby DFW, which would cause difficulty for theindigenous communities who have to prepare suchplans; (ii) no commercial transactions are allowed,which means that users’ rights are limited and accessto the forest resources by rural people would berestricted.

The Land Law is the primary law defining thelegal regime of immovable property rights inCambodia. The Forest Law is one of a suite of lawsrelated to specific kinds of state land (forestland) inCambodia. Thus, the Forestry Law must be inconformity with the legal principles of property rightsset out in the Land Law.


Poverty alleviation and the improvement ofthe Cambodian people’s quality of life arepriorities for the Government. However,

development of one or another sector may reach onlysome segments of the society, usually mainstreamsociety. Nationwide-oriented economic developmentpolicies may put more pressure on indigenous societies todistance themselves from their traditional way of life.

In the highland area where most of theindigenous peoples in Cambodia reside, NGOs/IOshave been carrying out in recent years developmentprograms that address the needs of people includingthe indigenous population. The CARERE Project inRatanakiri is attempting to build up the capacity ofindigenous peoples in planning and governance fortheir local communities to support the decentralizationpolicy of the Government through participation fromlow to high levels, including gender consideration,nonformal education, and natural resourcemanagement issues. CIDSE takes care of the integratedaspects of development; HU is working on healththroughout the province; NTFP takes care of land andforest resources with respect to nonformal education;and International Cooperation for Cambodia is workingon health care in some targeted areas and on educationin the minority languages. These NGO programs havedirect impact on the indigenous communities inRatanakiri.

In general, it can be said that there has beensome progress in improving the livelihood andcapacity building of indigenous peoples, but not fullsatisfaction, because the programs/projects of eachNGO/IO have not fully responded to their needs orsolved all their problems.

For instance, participation of indigenous peoplesin the projects has been limited to representatives ofdifferent levels. Participation by indigenous women hasnot been equal to that of men; despite much training ongender issues provided by NGOs/IOs, men do notsupport or respect women in meetings. Decision makingis done by only a few strong indigenous peoplerepresenting a village. Many indigenous peoples cannotspeak or understand the Khmer language.

Also, development workers from the NGOs/IOs arenot always good facilitators with indigenouscommunities. They explain to the people what they knowfrom the project and do not give enough opportunity tothe people to speak out. Some development workers donot respect the rights of indigenous peoples because theythink that indigenous peoples know nothing.

The main problem for development in the localcommunity is language. Some NGOs/IOs have paidattention to this problem. It is very important forindigenous peoples to understand what the developmentworkers are saying and to be able to contribute theirown opinions.

For example, an advocacy working groupmanaged by a foreigner did not empower the indigenouspeoples’ representative to play the role of owner of theadvocacy project. The project had no clear criteria forappointing an indigenous person to lead the project.Some NGOs/IOs have not had good relations with theGovernment. They have used indigenous peoples asintermediaries on issues that the NGOs/IOs want toimplement. Sometimes the indigenous peoples dounderstand the issues, but at other times they can onlyrepeat what the NGOs/IOs have explained to them. Thisis a challenge for the future in terms of capacity building.

PROGRAMS AND PROJECTSFOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

4


THE SEILA PROGRAM

Originally, the SEILA (a Khmer word approximatelymeaning “cornerstone” program was introduced as anew pilot approach to rural development in which theimprovement of local governance was seen as the keyto decentralization. A hierarchy of provincial, district,commune, and village development committees was setup. The commune and village development committeeswere formed through local elections managed by thecommunity.

The SEILA program was supported by CARERE,which established provincial support offices in 3northwestern provinces (Battambang, BanteayMeanchey, and Pursat) in 1992 to assist resettlementand reintegration efforts of refugees. The programexpanded to Siem Reap and Ratanakiri by late 1995. Ithas contributed to the government policy ofdecentralization and deconcentration by defining andtesting systems for planning, financing, and deliveringservices and investments for local development.Recently, it has been extended to cover 12 provinces.Some 2,800 villages have benefited from this program;in particular, 177 villages in Ratanakiri. Apart from localplanning, development of an integrated approach tocommunity-based natural resource managementbegan in 1999 in 13 communes of Bokeo and O Yadaoin Ratanakiri.

The primary focus of the program has been topromote an integrated approach. The other focus hasbeen to draw the attention of the provincial andnational authorities to facilitate and endorse thisapproach to sustainable management. The programhas highlighted how closely linked the livelihoods ofindigenous people are with the natural resourcesaround them. The integrated approach combinedseveral interventions such as nonformal education(NFE), agriculture, animal production, communityforestry, small-scale infrastructure, and agroforestry.

Capacity building in the SEILA program has beena comprehensive continuous process involving formaltraining, on-the-job training, learning by doing, andregular evaluation. The primary areas of capacitybuilding related to good governance include planning,financial management, contract design andadministration, budgeting, procurement and competitivebidding, facilitation, monitoring and evaluation, gender

awareness, the role of the private sector, human rights,and reconciliation.

The SEILA program has provided an example ofmultilateral and bilateral government partnership withfunding agencies. It has contributed to poverty reductionby providing much needed capital for investment inpublic services and infrastructure, and improved thelocal governance.

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENTPROGRAMME

Development of Highland People throughParticipatory Capacity Building

This UNDP regional project included four countries:Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The overalldevelopment objective was to improve the lives ofhighland peoples by assisting government, NGOs, andthe communities themselves to use available resourcesmore effectively in planning and carrying out highlanddevelopment efforts in a highly participatory manner.Duration of the project was 1993–1996. Activities includedtraining and study trips, establishment of databases andresources on highland peoples, and workshops andmeetings.

As a result of the project, highlanders haveincreased their capacity and self-confidence inplanning and managing their own development.National focal institutions, which have overallresponsibility for coordination, monitoring, and policyfor highland peoples’ development, were strengthened.Dialogue and interaction between the supportstructures of highlanders and government have grown.About 2,500 people received training throughworkshops, meetings, study tours, and formal training;62% were highland villagers and 38% were governmentand NGO personnel.

Women’s conditions and role were strengthenedin the pilot villages. They attained substantialrepresentation in village development committees(VDCs) and can now influence planning andimplementation activities in the villages. Theimprovement of the water supply had a positive effecton women’s workload and the general health situation.Although generally illiterate, they participated in NFE

Programs and Projects for the Development of Indigenous Peoples 17

programs. They have also been active users of thecredit system to develop income-generating activities.

Reducing the Workload of Hill TribeWomen in Ratanakiri

This project sought to improve the status ofwomen in Ratanakiri by reducing their daily workloadand increasing their opportunities in decision making,education, and income generation through formationof a women’s group, exchange visits, monitoring, andinteraction with VDCs.

Skills Improvement

An NFE project in cooperation with CARERE,Ratanakiri, was implemented to support the Ministry ofEducation, Youth, and Sport, with the objectives of reducingilliteracy and improving the general knowledge anddevelopment skills of 625 persons in 25 villages within 6communes in 3 districts; and increasing the capacity ofthe district facilitators and an interdepartmental provincialrural development committee (PRDC)/NFE working group.

In December 1995, the pilot NFE project (RAT/ED/9506) was initiated with provincial Departments ofEducation, Youth, and Sport. Ten pilot villages wereselected in 6 districts and classes were established. Thiswas later expanded to a further 10 villages in 1997. Theimpact of NFE has been strong. All teachers wereunanimous that NFE was important for the developmentof their village. Before NFE, few villagers were able toread, write, or calculate and did not know about hygiene,health, environment, agriculture, animal health, or genderissues. Teachers in all the villages were keen to continueand were highly motivated. The knowledge gained byNFE students has been passed on to their families.

WORLD BANK

Disease Control and Health DevelopmentProject

The World Bank supported the Ministry of Healthto implement a project on disease control and health

development in 10 provinces of Cambodia, including 2northeastern provinces, Kratie and Ratanakiri. The projectaimed to support the Government in pursuing two of itsprincipal health-sector objectives: reduction of death andsickness from preventable diseases, especially malaria,tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS; and rehabilitation of thehealth system infrastructure to deliver basic healthservices and disease control programs more effectivelydown to the community level. In all cases, financing wasdirected to areas where available financing from theGovernment and other aid agencies fell short of projectedneeds. In health services, the project upgraded facilities,media equipment, furniture, and transportation; andprovided essential drugs and in-service training.

Northeast Village Development Project

The Northeast Village Development Project(NVDP) is a community development project with theobjective of introducing decentralized, participatory, andpoverty-oriented rural development approaches in 12districts of 4 provinces: Kampong Cham, KampongThom, Kratie, and Stung Treng. The 5-year programbegan in 1998. The implementation phase was from July1999 to October 2001.

The project has two main components. The first,participatory planning and investment, began with theformation of VDCs and appraisals in approximately 120villages, to identify subprojects for financing. Grantswere to representative local communities, mainly forinfrastructure improvement and village economicdevelopment.

The second component, institutionalstrengthening and project management, consists oftraining courses; establishment of a projectmanagement information system; participatoryevaluation studies of project performance and impact;preparing feasibility studies for a follow-on project;review where necessary of subproject design andsupervision of construction; and independent, annualfinancial audits.

Social Fund Project

This World Bank project sought to supportthe government’s policy of poverty reduction through


• financing small-scale projects for the rehabilitationand reconstruction of social and economicinfrastructure, and other socially productiveactivities;

• creating short-term employment opportunities;

• expanding community opportunities to identifylocal development needs and manage small-scaledevelopment projects; and

• increasing line-ministry experience and capacityin developing investment criteria for localinfrastructure construction.

It consisted of two components: social fund seedcapital for social and economic infrastructure, socialservices, and equipment; and institutional support insalaries, vehicles, and operating expenses, as well astechnical assistance and training.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

The World Health Organization, in cooperationwith the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),UNDP, and the Overseas DevelopmentAdministration of the UK, supported the CambodianMinistry of Health (MOH) in two projects. First wasPhase II of the project entitled Strengthening theHealth System, the overall objective of which wasto assist MOH in the structural and functional reformof the health system to ensure the effective use ofexisting resources and to access complementaryresources for improved health services. Phase II wasfrom 1995 to 1997.

The second project was on Health SectorReform (Phase III, 1998–2000), on the developmentof quality basic health services, particularly in ruralareas. The project provided wide-ranging technicalsupport at all levels of the health system. The PhaseIII Project was to increase the capacity of MOHmanagers, phase out long-term, in-country technicalsupport, and increase direct resource and budgetarysupport to the sector. The intended end point of theproject was the development of an MOH-managedsector-wide approach to health sector management.

UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND

UNICEF, in cooperation with the SwedishInternational Development Cooperation Agency, supportedthe Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport in an educationprogram. The program, which operated from 1996 to 1998,had four main projects: capacity building through formaland nonformal education; curriculum and textbookdevelopment; education management information systemsdevelopment; and increasing the range of educationalservices in communities, especially to youth and women.

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL,SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL

ORGANIZATION

UNESCO’s Principal Regional Office for Asia-PacificRegion supported the Provincial and District EducationService of the Non-Formal Education Department in a one-year (1996–1997) “Pilot Project on Adult Literacy forDisadvantaged Groups in Rural Remote Areas in RatanakiriProvince.” The objective of the project was to providefunctional literacy skills through income-generatingactivities that are responsive to the learning needs andcondition of the sociocultural environment in order toimprove the quality of life.

The project targeted areas where there are noformal schools. The target population was children ofprimary school age, youth who had never been to school,and adult illiterates (especially women). The projectfocused on 6 hill tribes: Tampuon, Jarai, Kreung, Brao,Kachak, and Kravet. The project sought to assess theneed for NFE materials; organized a workshop onliteracy materials development, and trained instructorsand supervisors in Ratanakiri Province; and held openliteracy classes in 10 villages.

PARTNER FOR DEVELOPMENT

Partner for Development is a US nonprofitorganization that has been working in communitydevelopment in Stung Treng and Kratie provinces since1992. The organization is working toward stabilizing and

Programs and Projects for the Development of Indigenous Peoples 19

revitalizing social and economic structures by promotinggreater community self-reliance through formation ofVDCs; improving rural water supplies; improvingenvironment sanitation through school and family latrineprograms; facilitating community infrastructure;promoting food security and child nutrition through a “ricebank,” education, and family gardening; developingcommunity and school-based health education programs;and promoting private sector development.

There have been 238 VDCs formed and 1,335 VDCmembers trained in development principles. The ruralhealth activities include child survival, reproductivehealth, and malaria control programs.

MÉDECINS DU MONDE

Médecins du Monde (MDM) is an internationalorganization working in the health sector in MondulkiriProvince, where its 3-year project “Support for PrimaryHealth Care in the Mondulkiri Province” covers around45% of the province.

The objectives of the project are to improve theefficiency of health services in the five districts of theprovince as well as access for the rural population toprimary health care. MDM has also improved theunderstanding of the ethnic minority population withregard to access to the health care system and healtheducation, and has supported the supply of medicinaldrugs to these districts.

NOMAD

NOMAD is an NGO working on health and healtheducation issues. NOMAD has been present in MondulkiriProvince since June 2000 in a project on “Malaria amongPhnong People in Mondulkiri,” in partnership with theprovincial health authority and MDM.

MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES

Médecins Sans Frontières ran a 4-year program,“Rehabilitation of Health in Stung Treng Province,” from

1997 to 2000, to support the Stung Treng hospital andhealth center in Se San district.

Médecins Sans Frontières was also involved in aproject “Kratie Rehabilitation of Health Services,” 1995–1999, to support the Kratie provincial hospital and healthcenters. After the project ended, another NGO, Health NetInternational, was to continue the work.

NON-TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP), an NGO, isensuring indigenous peoples’ rights in protecting andmanaging natural resources and is recognized by theauthorities. NTFP has worked with indigenouscommunities on community forestry, in managing andusing natural resources sustainably; planning in orderto secure their land use; a forest concession project,to ensure indigenous peoples’ rights are recognizedby concession companies and the Government; and acapacity-building project for indigenous peoples toprovide knowledge/understanding on alternativelivelihoods.

During the last 2 years, NTFP’s work hasresulted in government support for and recognitionof the establishment of indigenous communities’committees (e.g., a committee on communityforestry), which the Government had previously notsupported. Also, indigenous communities nowunderstand better their rights because they are ableto speak out regarding their needs and problems incollecting nontimber forest products. They understandhow to discuss, lobby, and advocate concerningnatural resource issues.

COOPÉRATION INTERNATIONALEPOUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT DE LA

SOLIDARITÉ, CAMBODIA

Coopération Internationale pour leDéveloppement de la Solidarité began in 1994 the“Integrated Community-based Development Program”(ICD) with the goal of improving living conditions incommunities, while maintaining a balance betweenthe natural environment and traditional practices. The

Indigenous Peoples/Ethnic Minorities and Poverty Reduction: Cambodia20 20

strategies to achieve an ICD are community activitiesthat are identified based on the problems and needs ofindigenous peoples, with their full participation; and atthe district level, participation by staff of district sectorsthat have been integrated. NFE has played the main rolein improving their knowledge of ICD.

HEALTH UNLIMITED

Health Unlimited (HU) is a British NGO that hasbeen working in Ratanakiri since 1990. HU’s missionis to support poor people in their efforts to achievebetter health and well-being. Priority is given to themost excluded and vulnerable, in particular toindigenous peoples and communities affected byconflict and political instability. HU works withcommunities on long-term programs to build theknowledge and skills that will enable them to improvetheir own health and gain lasting access to effectiveservices and information.

HU works in four main areas: community health,strengthening health centers, support to the provincial

health department for training staff on a minimumpackage of activities, and mother and child health.

In community health, HU has activities in fivedistricts: Koun Mom, O Yadao, Andong Meas, O Chum,and Lom Phat, including 43 target villages. In eachvillage, a committee on health has been set up,consisting of 6 persons. At the district level are districthealth centers, and in the communes there arecommune health posts.

Improvements in health at the village level haveincluded

• strengthening village health committees (VHCs);

• strengthening the capacity of staff to implementVHC activities;

• improving the skills of traditional birth attendants;

• women’s health discussion groups; and

• improving linkages between village and districthealth staff.


PERCEPTION OF POVERTY IN THECAMBODIAN CONTEXT

Poverty is a serious problem in Cambodia. Despite3 years of strong economic growth, thepoverty rate has declined only slightly, from 39%

in 1994 to 36.1% in 1997 (Ministry of Planning, 2000).The first Cambodian Participatory Poverty

Assessment (PPA), conducted in 24 provinces andmunicipalities at the end of 2000 by the Ministry ofPlanning with support from ADB, has provided adefinition of poverty by the poor: Being hungry is theprimary concern of the poor. A second major elementis that the poorest people have few, if any, assets(e.g., land, draft animals, housing). Land issues arealso very important to them; limited land perhousehold, low fertility, presence of land mines, orlandlessness. Box 1 provides a background to thesefactors of poverty .

Other characteristics of poverty offered by thepoor in Cambodia include too many children, illhealth, lack of kinship support, remoteness, lack ofmicrocredit, lack of potable drinking water, lack ofirrigation systems, and lack of confidence in localand provincial administration. The northeasternhighland minority participants in the PPA alsomentioned that educational opportunities arenonexistent or limited for the poor. Lack of teachers,absenteeism, and poor teacher quality are alsoidentified as problems.

FINDINGS OF THE PROVINCIALWORKSHOP

As part of the present project, a provincialworkshop was held on 21–22 May 2001 in RatanakiriProvince to exchange ideas and experiences related tocapacity building for indigenous peoples and povertyreduction in the four provinces in northeast Cambodia;to discuss how to address poverty reduction; and toprovide ideas for making action plans for future activitiesin this area. Participants were representatives of theMinistry of Rural Development, provincial key linedepartments, NGOs, and indigenous peoples.

Education and health were found to be the basicneeds of indigenous peoples in order for them to developtheir knowledge and skills to attain secure livelihoods.Education is an important element of capacity building.With regard to health, many indigenous villages arelocated far from district health centers and communehealth posts and have no access to health services.Neither have the villagers money for consultation orbuying medicine. Thus, they still practice traditionalceremonies when they are sick.

The need for sustainability of natural resources, onwhich most indigenous peoples in the province depend,was stressed.

Challenges to the traditional way of life werehighlighted at this workshop, particularly the growingimmigration of lowland Khmer to Ratanakiri Province,which is increasing the population density andpreventing traditional swidden agriculture, as well as

UNDERSTANDINGTHE POVERTY CONCERNS OF

INDIGENOUS PEOPLESTrends, Causes, and Perceptions

5


From their very first contact with lowlandsettlers, highlanders have been made conscious ofthe material differences between them and their newneighbours. Traditionally, highlander wealth has beenstored in the form of prestige goods such aselephants, livestock, antique gong, and rice wine jars.These are still highly prized by most highlanders andplay a vital role in religious life (jars of rice wine andgongs are used during ceremonies, and livestock arestill the most important of sacrificial offerings). Yetmarket forces place a very different value on someof these surplus possessions; livestock, for example,are seen as valuable in strictly monetary terms. Still,even today this placing of monetary value of livestockhas not yet penetrated to villages to a great extent.Most villagers aspire towards owning as manylivestock as possible and prefer to preserve thistraditional form of wealth. Their cows and buffaloesare perhaps their most prized possessions and arekept for traditional purposes rather than formonetary gain.

The difference in outlook is often striking:many Khmer are baffled that highlanders do notexploit evident economic opportunities such asselling their cattle or cultivating cash crops on alarge scale to ensure a greater income. It is nocoincidence that Phnong villagers in Mondulkiriidentified the Sangkum period, when they came intomore intense contact with the Khmer, as the timewhen they first started selling their livestock forcash. Such differences reveal how culturallysubjective perceptions of wealth, poverty, and whatconstitutes a “good life” are.

Unfortunately, such differences in perceptionare not managed with respect. Some highlanders

described how they are made painfully aware thatthey do not have the material trappings of manyKhmer and are even made to feel ashamed of this.As one villager said:

Sometimes they [Khmer] joke with us in a badway. For example, if I have a chicken to selland I ask them to give KR5,000* they joke andsay no, they will give me one “chi” of gold….They joke like this and don’t show respect. Theytreat us like we are stupid. Then if, for example,they have a new Honda bike they say they willsell it to us very cheaply. They know we don’teven have one “chi” of gold. It is bad the waythey speak like this.

This was not identified as a general trait of allKhmer, just a problem with some individuals. OneJarai villager who had married a Khmer recognisedthat such discrimination came from ignorance. Fromhis experience, he felt that similar problems wereencountered by Khmer farming people and their inter-relations with wealthy urban Khmer. The disrespectfulattitudes which highlanders mention may stem fromthe fact that the majority of Khmer who settled inBanlung, the provincial town of Ratanakiri, forexample, are relatively wealthy traders, and it is theseKhmer with whom the highlanders have the mostcontact.

Misunderstanding and discrimination mayeven be exacerbated by the arrival in the northeastof new Khmer settlers from other provinces whohave little knowledge of the distinctly differentculture of the Khmer-Loeu and are often genuinelyshocked at the peculiarities of their lifestyle.

Box 1. A Definition of Highland Poverty

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

* US$1.00 = KR3,900 at the time of survey.Source: White (1996). Reproduced with permission of the publisher—Center for Advanced Studies, Phnom Penh.

Understanding the Poverty Concerns of Indigenous Peoples: Trends, Causes, and Perceptions 23

causing access problems to nontimber forest products.Indigenous people need education and knowledge aboutthe Land Law and their rights. They also lack politicaland economic power.

LIVELIHOODS OFINDIGENOUS PEOPLES

The livelihood strategy of indigenous peoples isbased on agricultural production, comprising slash-and-burn (swidden) cultivation, wetland ricecultivation, pig and chicken raising, gathering foodfrom the forest, hunting, and fishing. They alsoundertake a little manufacture and sale of goods andlabor work.

Agriculture

Most indigenous farmers in northeasternCambodia are still using their traditional farmingtechnique—semi-nomadic, slash-and-burn cultivation.Although some of them began lowland rice farmingafter the integration process in the 1960s, they still keepswidden fields where they farm upland rice and othercrops as a form of food security. Very few crops aregrown inside the village because it is difficult to protectthem from domestic animals, which are usually allowedto roam free. Rice is the central staple crop of theswidden system, but other crops are also grown forsubsistence use within the household, includingvegetables, root crops, gourds, fruits, and nonfoodcrops like tobacco and cotton. Animal raising, usuallycattle, pigs, and chickens, is done either for sacrifices,income generation, or food.

During the Khmer Rouge period, indigenouspeople learned that the lowland rice farming techniqueof their neighboring lowland Khmer provided higheryields and required less work than their highlandtechnique. Some villagers have been developing lowlandrice fields with help from NGOs or by imitating others.However, after 1979 some of them reverted to swiddenagriculture because of technical or other problems.

The indigenous communities have also beenseeking other livelihood alternatives, such as growingfruit trees and other high-demand cash crops like coffee,cashew nuts, green beans, jackfruit, and durian.However, poor road infrastructure and market supporthave dampened their motivation.

Forest Products

In the highland areas, swidden farming andlowland agricultural practice cannot provide for all theneeds of indigenous farmers because of such problemsas natural disasters, crop pests and diseases, lack ofdraft animals, and poor soil fertility. Forest fruits, wildlife,fish, traditional medicines, and construction materialcomplement their crop production. In this way, the foresthas played a crucial role for generations of indigenoushighland peoples, especially in times of food shortagebefore a harvest.

Forest vegetables, leaves, and tubers are veryimportant in the diet of indigenous highland communities.Wild tubers have been particularly important during warswhen cultivation is difficult, and in years of poor riceharvest. Forest vegetables are mainly for consumption,but some such as bamboo shoots, mushrooms, yams,and the soft part of big rattan (chong pdao) are sold inlimited quantity by some villagers.

Forest fruits complement the diet in the dry season.Many forest fruits, such as phniev, kampingreach, pring,kuoy, makprang, role or kulen prey, are used for familyconsumption. In Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri malva nuts(samrong) are collected by villagers for sale.

Liquid resin (choar tuk) and solid resin (choar chong)play an important role in household income generation.The earnings are used for buying rice and other necessaryfoods. Bamboo, rattan, and small trees are used forhousing construction and crafts material. Bamboo andrattan are also sold by some indigenous communities.

Wildlife is hunted for food and is a relativelyimportant source of protein, because in the high altitudeareas of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri, there are few fish.In recent decades, wildlife species such as pangolin,monitor lizard, and python have been hunted for saleto buyers in Viet Nam.


WAR AND POVERTY IN THEHIGHLAND AREAS

After the military coup in 1970, the four provincesin northeastern Cambodia were the provinces of thecoalition of Viet Cong and Khmer Rouge, the “revolutionbase” for combating the Lon Nol regime. At the sametime, the war in neighboring Viet Nam also had animpact on this region, particularly along the Ho Chi MinhTrail. Bombing by the US Air Force in this areacontributed to poverty: the economy was interrupted andmost physical infrastructure was destroyed. Manyvillagers of Kratie, Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri, and StungTreng complained that the bombing made peoplefrightened; they had fled and could not undertakefarming; life was made very difficult.

Collective ownership under Pol Pot alsocontributed to poverty. All private property, except forminimal personal everyday needs, was confiscated andconsidered as government property. In Ratanakiri,12,231 wine jars as well as 12,245 gongs that theindigenous communities considered to form theirprestige and cultural wealth were confiscated by theKhmer Rouge authority (Sugiati, 1997). All people hadto work very hard in the fields and suffered from hungerand illness. After Pol Pot was defeated, people returnedto their villages and had to start their life anew. In someindigenous communities in Kratie and Stung Treng,where the civil war continued, life remained difficultbecause of the fighting as well as oppression from theKhmer Rouge who took food from the villages.

CHANGES IN THE HIGHLANDS AFTERTHE FIRST NATIONAL ELECTIONS

After the first national elections, the Governmentdeclared a free-market economy. Cambodia becamelinked again to the international community. Thehighland natural resources, especially of Ratanakiri,and population pressure from the lowlands increasedthe interest of local and international investors in bothtimber extraction and industrial plantations for coffee,rubber, palm oil, and soy bean. This has caused a majorshift in the use of land and other resources ofindigenous peoples.

Customary Natural Resource Management

Highland village communities have their ownreligious practices, kinship and social obligations,patterns of authority, customary law, conflict resolution,and decision making. Traditionally, indigenous peoplesuse, maintain, and control natural resources througha system of self-management to support their ownsubsistence. Now, there is more and more interest innatural resource extraction and many changes areunderway.

Most indigenous highland peoples have rulesconcerning village land used for residence and forcultivation. This land is usually defined in relation tonatural objects such as a mountain, stream, river, orother features. The inhabitants of one village may notuse land or cut trees in the area of another village; ifthey do so, the spirits will cause disease or othermisfortunes. Intervillage negotiation between elderstakes place when the farming plots of villages overlap.Farming is prohibited in the spirit forest.

Villages are moved in special circumstances, suchas the government relocation program, war, or diseaseepidemics. Intravillage disputes sometimes lead to onegroup moving to a new location.

Issues Related to Land Security

Immigration

Increased migration of lowland Khmer to thehighlands caused the population of Ratanakiri to growby 41% in the 6 years between the UNTAC PopulationCensus of 1992 and the National Population Census in1998. In Banlung, the population increased by 82% inthe same period. The immigrants were mainly fromKampong Cham, Takeo, Kandal, Phnom Penh, andKratie. The national average population growth duringthis period was 29%.

A study of immigration in Ratanakiri (Tse andPhalit, 2000) showed that the main reasons were toimprove livelihoods, fleeing land loss and poverty, andbusiness ventures. Most felt better off than where theycame from, even if they did not meet their aims. It wasfelt that more immigration to the province had led toindigenous peoples’ wanting more consumer goods.Hence, they needed to sell more land and agricultural


buy the rights to their fields from them in order to createa commercial plantation. However, the fact thathighlanders are not aware of their legal position or themarket value of the land they farm leaves them proneto exploitation. In several cases, villagers were misledby individuals who introduced themselves asgovernment representatives. In these cases, even ifvillagers were reluctant to sell their land they felt obligedto do so, and at a very low price.

The decisions to sell that have been made to dateappear to have been made in the belief that the copingmechanism traditionally used by highlanders when landis under pressure from an increased population is stillan option. Traditionally, when increased population inan area reached a certain point, villagers would shifttheir village and farming sites. Similarly, villagers whocame into conflict with lowlanders over theencroachment of villagers’ livestock on the lowlanders’commercial farms also saw the only choice available tothem being to move their village. With the changesunderway and planned for the highlanders, this may nolonger be a viable option, but villagers remain unawareof this fact.

One case was described in which a privateindividual had selected an area of forest where hewanted to develop a coffee plantation. This area wasthe old site of a Phnong village in Dak Dam where sacredtrees had been planted. A villager said:

If a villager had cut [trees in] this place theelders would have fined them ever so much. Butbecause it is the Government they will not dare sayanything.

Other cases were described of private individualsnot associated with the Government who had attemptedto cut down sacred primary forest, such as loggers inStung Treng and commercial farmers in Mondulkiri.Although in some cases offerings to the spirits had beennegotiated between village elders and these individuals,this was often not the case. It was believed that thiswould generate serious implications for villagers, whonoted that even if the outsiders remained unscathed,those in the village might still be punished by the forestspirits for these actions.

In situations such as this, traditional customarylaw and authority are evidently being disregarded or atleast undermined. Even if a small offering is negotiated

and forest products to purchase these goods. Althoughthe immigrants do not own much land, the indigenouspeoples fear that immigration will lead to conflicts andloss of land. The research findings show effects ofimmigration on cultural practices and tradition such asstyle of clothing, types of food and housing, taboos andother beliefs, and respect to elders.

Establishment of Reserves

A national park in Veunsai district and a wildlifesanctuary in Lumphat district of Ratanakiri wereestablished to protect forest, wildlife, and tourist sites,but may affect the life of indigenous peoples becauseindigenous villages are located within the national parkand other conservation areas. When a developmentproject or agricultural concession begins, villagers aredenied use of some of their ancestral land and may beforced to use resources from protected areas, as wasthe experience in the palm oil concession in O Yadao.

Hydropower Projects

Several hydropower projects have been proposedon the Se San and Sre Pok rivers and their tributaries. Ifthese projects begin, villagers may have to be relocatedto places far from their ancestral land.

Land Use and Sales

Some of the issues concerning land, arising fromimmigration to highland areas in recent years, areillustrated in the following examples from Tuy village(Box 2) and Kamang village (Box 3).

Similar events have also occurred in areas nearBanlung, such as in Phnom village of Yak Lom communeand in Tong Krabou village of O Chum. Together, theydemonstrate that the most pressing change facing thehighlanders today is the commercial exploitation of theupland areas. Although the impact of this new sphereof interest is only just beginning to be felt in certainareas of the northeast, it is a major trend for the future(White, 1996).

Apart from the official legal complexities, theactual practices that occur imply some informalrecognition of highlanders’ rights over their farmingland. Some villagers have already had the experienceof private individuals (in most cases Khmer) seeking to


Until 1996, there were vast lands and forestsand plenty of wildlife accessible to Tuy villagers. Theforest contained different types of precious trees.The richness of natural resources attracted newsettlers and logging companies. Between 1997 and1999, new settlers started to move in to developagricultural land within deforested areas. There wasunrestrained illegal logging in the period 1997–1999.

The major problems faced by villagers in Tuyvillage directly relate to land pressure: the increasingdifficulty in finding good quality land for theirswidden fields, declining rice yields, and an increasein weed pests. Land in Tuy village is encroachedupon by outsiders/new settlers. Villagers are startingto take protective measures and plant cashew nutor other fruit trees along the main road to preventoutsiders taking possession of fallow land. Mostvillagers have few opportunities to earn cashincome, while life is changing fast in the directionof a money economy. Some families started sellingland that originally was perceived to belong to thewhole community. Others only sold part of the landthat they cultivated and remained in the village. Theybelieve that it is better to sell the land now and

Box 2. Land Use and Access in Tuy Village

receive some money rather than to lose it later toinvestors without getting anything. A volunteerteacher in Tuy village said:

At present villagers have not yet a seriousproblem for using land but the next indigenouspeoples’ generation will have not enough landfor upland rice as well as wet-rice agriculture.

Besides these negative developments, positivetrends are also visible. NGOs and internationalorganizations working with indigenous peoples inTuy village have started to raise awareness ofsustainable development among both governmentauthorities and local people through a land rightsaction research project, raising awareness of thelocal planning process, etc. A process of consultationto discuss and respond to indigenous peoples’ needsand rights has developed between the provincialauthorities, NGOs, and representatives of localcommunities. These exchanges have contributed toan increased understanding and appreciation of theunique situation of Tuy villagers’ culture and naturalresource use practices.

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

to be made to the spirits, this is still ignoring the role ofsome of these beliefs, which is their power of preventingimbalance in the relationship between people and theforest. Villagers are aware of the rules and conform tothem. Thus, traditionally the primary forest remaineduntouched.

Lack of Food Security

The livelihood of indigenous peoples dependsmostly on upland rice interspersed, in the same fields,with a number of different vegetable crops andsupplemented by fishing, hunting, and collecting forestvegetables and fruits. The low yields, poor weather

conditions, and loss to pests in upland farming plotsmean that they will most probably soon face a shortageof rice. Kanat Touch villagers say that lowland (wet-rice) cultivation is now more important because therice yield is higher and ensures enough rice for the fullyear. The elders changed their ideas because when theypracticed swidden agriculture they had no time forother income-generating activities, and there were 4-5months of rice shortage each year. A case study in somevillages indicated that indigenous people there wantedlowland rice cultivation, but they faced the problemsof lack of seed and equipment and poor soil fertility.Also, indigenous peoples cannot leave swiddenagriculture immediately, because their diet has longbeen associated with their traditional mixed crop


The rapid growth of the Bokeo market anddistrict center has had far-reaching affects onKamang village. The transformation began in 1998when the district center of Bokeo was transferredfrom Andong Meas crossing to its present locationalong national road No 19.

According to Kamang village leaders,government employees [police officers] in Bokeodistrict started farming along the national road withinthe boundary of Kamang under permits from a formerdistrict governor. No permission was sought or givenby Kamang villagers. When the government workersleave the district, they sell a parcel of land they hadreceived to Khmer buyers, who plant cash crops. Thepolice officers claimed that the district had theauthority to allocate the land to them. The Kamangvillagers countered that the parcels were old plotsunder crop rotation. But there was little they coulddo to get them back.

Since the initial land sales along the road fouror five years ago, the numbers of Khmer in the districtcenter have increased steadily, along with theexpansion of the Bokeo market. With many Khmermigrants seeking to acquire land for cultivation ofcrops, the pressure on Kamang villagers to relinquishtheir land rights has been severe. The land parcelsmost desired by the Khmer buyers are those locatedalong the road. These can be reached by motorcycleand are directly accessible by transport to eitherBanlung market or the Viet Nam border.

According to the VDC chief, the amountsreceived for the sale of land along the road have been

Box 3. Land Sales in Kamang Village along the National Road, Ratanakiri

about KR200,000* per hectare. In some instances,land has been sold for as little as KR50,000 perhectare. Some of the Khmer buyers have boughtparcels and then extended them into areas that theydid not buy. Others have taken and occupied landwithout paying for it. Most of the land sales have takenplace in the last three years and there are now fewparcels along the road that have not already beensold. Kamang villagers have dealt independently withbuyers and have not consulted with the village chiefor elders about the details of their land sale. As aresult, it is not clear how many villagers have beeninvolved in land sales and how much they have sold.The village chief identified 35 of 67 Kamanghouseholds as having sold land to Khmer buyers. TheVDC chief identified 22 of the same 67 households ashaving sold land.

The village chief, who himself sold one hectareof land in the interior on the village, argues thatKamang villagers with plots along the national roadfeared that their land would be taken without paymentif they did not sell it. This argument expresses thesense of powerlessness and resignation that has cometo characterize Kamang villagers in their propertydealings with Khmer people. And while the assertionmay be overstated, it is not without a measure of truth.In 1997, the district authorities enlarged the area ofthe district center to include more land along the roadthat was previously part of Kamang holdings. Withthe village boundary redrawn, Kamang no longer hadclaim to the lands that now fell under anotherjurisdiction.

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

*US$1.00 = KR3,900 at the time of the survey.Source: McAndrew (2000).

cultivation. Another factor is distance: in Lao Ka inMondulkiri, for example, people prefer uplandcultivation rather than working in lowland rice fields15 kilometers from the village.

In the Phnong communities in Dak Dam,Mondulkiri, the Government encouraged people to startlowland rice farming several years ago, by providingfood for work as well as building a small dam and


providing a water pump for irrigation. However, thefarming stopped when the dam was destroyed.

Indigenous communities are beginning tounderstand the significance of planting fruit trees in aplot of land: they can obtain land rights and sell theproducts.

Not only fruits, wildlife, and fish, but also timberis in high demand and valuable. Since 1997, outsidershave been shooting wildlife for sale. Villagersconsequently have difficulty in collecting forest products.The changing view on the value of forest products isdemonstrated by a Tampuon man in Tuy village:

Before, we did not know about the value ofwildlife. Since outsiders have captured wildlife andtaken them in vehicles for sale, many peopleincluding provincial official staff, companies, andsome villagers see wildlife as equaling money.

Impact of Yali Falls Dam

In the past, the Se San River had a seasonal cycle.Now, however, the water regime changes at any time,rising so fast that people’s canoes are overturned andone village has been drowned. The quality of the waterhas deteriorated, such that drinking it has caused throatpains and stomach ache, while some buffaloes, pigs,and chickens have died from the water. Villagers blamethe Yali Falls dam although they have never seen it.

For the past 3 years, floods have comecontinually and most of the fishing gear of Kanat Touchvillagers has been lost in the rising waters. Fish havebecome scarce and wild vegetables no longer growalong the river banks because the floods have affectedthe area, even sometimes destroying the rice fields.

The water problem faces all the communities infour districts (Andong Meas, Taveng, Veunsai ofRatanakiri, and Se San of Stung Treng) along the Se SanRiver. The impact was described in an NTFP report afterconsultation with 59 villages along the River.

The Andong Meas deputy district chief explainedthat fish stocks in the River had declined a great deal,and were still in decline. He said that before the damwas built, a person could fish for a day or two and haveenough fish to eat for a month. Now people fish for aday, and they might only be able to catch enough fish tolast that day or just a few days. Sometimes, gillnets and

hooks and lines set out in the evening are found rightout of the water in the morning because of sudden andunnatural reductions of the water level, while on othernights fishing lines are washed away when water levelsrise quickly. The deputy district chief also explained thatmuch of his lowland rice harvest has been lost in recentyears because of unnatural floods in the rainy season.Similar stories were heard from everyone interviewedin Andong Meas (Baird, 2001).

The report of the consultation (Baird, 2001) statesthat community leaders, including the respected elders,expressed their support for setting up a communitynetwork related to Se San River issues. They said thatthey wanted a chance to have their voices heard. Theywant the river returned to its natural state. It was agreedthat the Se San network should address this importantquestion. They need support from “organizations” tomake the network work. They would, for example, liketo go to Phnom Penh to tell high officials and politiciansabout their problems in relation to the Yali Falls dam,but they do not know where to go, or whom they shouldgo and see. The villagers claim to know very little. Theyneed outsiders to provide them with knowledge and tobuild up their abilities.

Forest Concessions

Forests cover approximately 10.5 million hectaresor about 60% of Cambodia’s total area (ADB, 1999b).However, around 4.7 million hectares are currently inthe concession list of 21 local and international loggingcompanies. About 2.4 million hectares of the concessionareas are located in the four northeastern provinceswhere the majority of the indigenous highlandpopulation lives.

Although logging concessions, both legal andillegal, are a major threat to the land and traditionallivelihood of indigenous peoples, who are stronglylinked to the forests, there are few studies of the impactof forest concessions on their livelihood. One examplefollows.

At the beginning of 1998, the Governmentauthorized a 25-year timber concession to the Herocompany from Taipei,China, to log about 60,000 hectaresof forest in 3 districts of Ratanakiri. Almost 10,000 peopleincluding Kameng villagers, who are mostly Krengethnic group, live in the concession area. If the company


did agree with the Department of Forestry and Wildlifein excluding the areas protected by the communities, itdid not fully respect the agreement.

Villagers had been allowed little or no participationin either the planning of the Hero concession or the areasto be logged. In 1999, Hero started to build a road directlyinto the forest of Svay village (near Kameng village).The spirit forest of Svay village was affected. The twovillages continue to protest with no solutionforthcoming.

In 2000, Hero continued to encroach on the forestof Kameng village. The company built a road across theupland rice fields of Kameng villagers. However, thevillagers stopped the construction before significantimpact was made. One Kreung woman, Yiay Lao, said:

There are many kinds of forest products thatwe use, such as bamboo, vines, rattan, kanmaleaves. We Kreung don’t have money so we rely onthe natural resources from the forest. Cutting theforest has violated our rights. (Report on LoggingDestroys Forest and Hilltribe Culture in NortheastCambodia, by Don Muller, NTFP Ratanakiri).

EDUCATION

Education Status

The education system in Cambodia has undergonesevere stress during the last 40 years. In the past, thenortheast had a more prominent role in nationaldevelopment policy and many areas were targeted forresettlement by people from populous regions. Sangkumcommunities made up of such settlers (especiallysoutherners) continue to exist throughout the northeast.Minority populations were also accorded a moredistinguished role.

For the hill tribe communities in northeastCambodia, education activities started in the 1960s whenthe Government began the first 5-year developmentplan. The Government provided basic education to theremote communities to promote development and tointegrate the rural areas.

Schools that were closed during the Khmer Rougeregime reopened 9 months after that period ended. Thisquick response to set up, administer, and staff an entire

national education program showed the strongcommitment that the Cambodians have to educatingtheir children. The education system has continued toexpand since that time.

Literacy rates in Cambodia are still low (62.8%according to the National Population Census 1998),although they have been increasing rapidly and haverecovered from the low levels brought about by theKhmer Rouge, but remain low in the northeast,especially in Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri (23.5% and32.8%, respectively).

Education Problems

Students in the northeast must deal both withthe problems that affect the whole country andproblems specific to the region. Because of theisolation and poverty of the region, it is difficult toattract and retain teachers. The low education baseof the indigenous population also limits the numberof people who can be trained. The language barrier isalso a factor (Box 4).

Many schools in Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri arenot operating because of a lack of teachers or a lack ofstudents. Although there are schools in all districts,these schools are generally clustered around the districtand provincial capitals, making access difficult formany students.

Unlike lowland children, many highland childrendo not speak Khmer at home, putting them at distinctdisadvantage when they enter school, where lessonsare taught in Khmer.

In the formal education system, indigenouschildren are less likely to go to school than the averageCambodian children. Some reasons include (i) the lowstandard of living of indigenous peoples, so that inmany cases the opportunity costs are too great(children are required to help in the field and look aftersiblings or animals, while the planting and harvestseason needs intensive work in which all the householdmembers must assist, such that during these timesmany children drop out of school); (ii) the schools areoften far from their homes; (iii) there is a lack oflearning materials; and (iv) many people cannot affordschool uniforms for their children. The high cost hasto be compared with the benefits of education, whichappear to be low in the highland area.


Language can pose a critical barrier to mutualunderstanding. Very few Khmer can speak anyhighland languages (a few Khmer who have beenliving in the northeast for a long period can speaksome local languages, and only then at a very basiclevel), yet the common assumption is that theselanguages are very simple and because there aremany Khmer terms that have no equivalent in theseindigenous languages, they are not “developed.”Likewise, there are many terms in highlanderlanguages revealing indigenous knowledge andconcepts bound up within their own environment,yet this is given no recognition or value. The factthat it is difficult for highlanders to find appropriatedirect translations to express their ideas and conceptsleads to poor understanding among outsiders as tothe real nature of the societies and their wealth ofexpressions, an area which deserves considerablymore research.

The language issue also raises other problems.While some highlanders (especially men) speakKhmer, most do not. This depends on thepeculiarities of the education system in their regionand the nature of a group’s contact with Khmer. InMondulkiri, for example, many Phnong men andwomen were found to speak Khmer (and even someFrench), and this appears to be partly because ofthe more extensive education system available whenthey lived under the jurisdiction of Kratie Province,followed by their intense contact with Khmer sincethe sangkum period. Highlanders see the importanceof learning Khmer and are interested in sending theirchildren to study Khmer, if only for the one perceivedadvantage it offers them, of being able to trade on amore equal basis with Khmer. But teachers are not

locally available in the numbers required. Thecontinued limited grasp of Khmer by highlanders canlead to some misunderstandings and problems ininterrelations.

Concepts in the Khmer language as used byKhmer are very telling in terms of interethnic relationsand concepts of difference. The distinction betweenCambodian (nationality) and Khmer (ethnic group) isnot apparent in the everyday speech of Khmer. Forexample, Khmer people constantly refer to themselvesas khmae-yeung (we Khmer), and, by extension, thecountry of Cambodia is referred to as srok khmae-yeung (our Khmer country). This constantly definesthe country in ethnic terms, privileging the majorityethnic group.

The importance of mutual understanding andtolerance of difference, not only out of respect fordifferent cultures but also for the preservation ofcultural identity, becomes particularly apparent insituations where highlanders live alongside amajority Khmer population, a situation not yetexperienced by many of the ethnic groups in thenortheast but which is the current experience ofsome of the Kuy living in mixed ethnic villages inStung Treng, where they are vastly outnumbered byKhmer. Kuy men working as soldiers in the localarmy base described how they were mocked byKhmer soldiers for using their own language, andmothers described how their children wereembarrassed to speak Kuy at home as they wereafraid their Khmer friends would laugh at them. Insuch situations, there is an intense pressure tosuppress cultural identity to avoid conflict andshame, which is what in many senses these Kuycommunities were found to do.

Box 4. The Language Barrier

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

○

Source: White (1996). Reproduced with permission of the publisher—Center for Advanced Studies, Phnom Penh.


The present study highlighted the aspirationsof both adults and children in becoming literate andable to calculate figures. They expressed an urgentneed for basic skills that will enable them to holddialogue with government authorities and stakeholdersregarding their natural resources. While formaleducation is not so appropriate to many villagers inareas visited (Tuy, Kanat Touch, and Kameng ofRatanakiri, as well as Pou Heam and Pou Rless ofMondulkiri), they mentioned the value of NFE. NFE isinteresting to them because they can be activeparticipants and the curriculum is based upon theirpriorities. It is hoped that the knowledge gained bypeople from NFE courses will lead to an improvedsituation for villagers as well as provide opportunitiesfor their empowerment in the face of threats to theirtraditional way of life. One elder in Tuy village said:

Increased access to education is an obviousrequirement for villagers and can be used as anentry point for issues concerning natural resourcemanagement, landownership, and trading andmarketing skills.

In Ratanakiri, NFE activities were mostlyintegrated into the development programs of NGOs orprovided in the form of bilateral cooperation betweenthe Government and sponsoring organizations. NFE inRatanakiri aims to improve literacy. The NGOs beganpilot courses in a few selected villages and laterexpanded to other villages. The volunteer teachers arerecruited locally and trained during a workshop or atthe district center. These volunteer teachers have nosalary, but the organizations pay them a small amountper hour or give them an award at the end of the year.Classes are conducted in the evening after 7 pm andlast at least 2 hours.

HEALTH

Health status

The principal health problems faced by indigenouspeoples in the northeast are directly related to the naturalenvironment and socioeconomic conditions there.Among the most common diseases are malaria,

diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, tuberculosis, andintestinal parasites.

Infant mortality in Cambodia is the worst in Asiaat 115 per 1,000 live births, and the under-5 mortalityrate is 181 per 1,000 births. Infectious diseases, alongwith low vaccination rates and poor nutrition, accountfor most infant deaths. Maternal mortality is also highat 650 per 100,000 live births. The most common causesare complications related to abortion, eclampsia, andhemorrhage. Prenatal care services and facilities tohandle complicated births usually are not available tohighland peoples.

Social and cultural factors are important in theuse, and potential abuse, of drugs, tobacco, andalcohol. Field visits suggest that use of tobacco andalcohol is very high among children in the northeasternprovinces.

Recently, Cambodia has been especially hard hitby HIV/AIDS and has one of the highest infection ratesin Asia. There is no evidence of infection yet amongthe indigenous peoples in the northeast. However, theycould in time be seriously affected, precisely becausethey have little access to preventive measures.

The health system in Cambodia has been undertremendous reform from top to bottom in the pastdecade. However, access to health care and quality ofservices remain major problems because of lowsocioeconomic development levels, low literacy, andfinancial constraints on the health system. The systemis still struggling to rebuild facilities and personnel lostduring the Pol Pot era. Facilities are simply notavailable, are poorly distributed, or are in poorcondition. The supply of doctors, nurses, and healthworkers is limited, as are their training and supplies.Ethnic minority families often live far from roads anddistrict or provincial centers, effectively restricting theiraccess to formal health services. And when the servicesare available, they are often of lower quality than mightbe found in other parts of the country.

Inadequate nutrition is another problem that mayinfluence the health status of highlanders. As onevillager said:

Villagers have not enough food to eat in orderto have force and energy for working in chamkaras well as participation in all developmentactivities in their village.


Health and Belief

Most indigenous highland peoples are consideredto be animists although some villages in Dak Dam andBusra communes in Mondulkiri are predominantlyCatholic, largely because of the presence of Frenchmissionaries before and after the Khmer Rouge period.

The health status of indigenous villagers cannotbe separated from spiritual beliefs or social life. People’sactions regarding health are charged with social andcultural implications. Among hill tribe members, thereappears to be no indigenous notion of the spread ofdisease through contact with germs, bacteria, or viruses.Highlanders do recognize, however, that dirty water cancause sickness.

The spirit world holds great importance for mostindigenous peoples and influences most of theiractivities, such as the movement of villages and houses,work in the rice fields, sickness and health, and death.Spirits are usually found in the natural environment: inthe forest, in some large trees, in deep water, on top ofhills, in waterfalls, etc. People offer food and small giftsto the spirits before meals, and sacrifice animals duringmarriages and funerals or to appease the spirits in timesof illness. Commonly sacrificed animals range fromchickens to buffaloes according to the importance ofthe spirit.

Traditional Healing

Traditional medicine and healers are importantresources for health in Cambodia, especially in ruralareas. Traditional healing consists of the use oftraditional medicine, the use of herbs and other curativeplants, and spiritual curing. Various options are availableto villagers who fall sick, including both traditional andmodern services. Traditional healers offer a wealth ofassistance and indigenous experience and are usuallytrusted by the many villagers who seek out theirassistance. Specialists include herbalists, spirit mediums(arak), traditional birth attendants, villagers who havepreviously been trained in work and are still called uponfor some services at the village level, and other villagerswho can carry out the required treatment.

According to a study carried out by the NGONOMAD in 1998, there are five main types of traditionalpractitioners in Phnong society: (i) the kruu boran, who

uses plants and animals and often acts as a pharmacistand a healer at the same time. He understands diagnosisand appropriate medicinal plant remedies as well astheir preparation and use; (ii) the kruu ap (witch), whouses only magic; (iii) the kruu beut (shaman), who usesmagic but only with good intentions; (iv) the chmopboran or traditional midwife, who uses magic and plants;and (v) the kruu thief, a medium or diviner (Pordié, 1998).Another healer, the kruu so doh plom, is able to vanquishspirits from houses.

Herbal medicine made from roots, tree bark, andleaves is frequently the first recourse. Herbal remediesexist for numerous ailments, including headache,stomach ache, fever, diarrhea, malaria, cough, joint pain,snakebite, lack of energy, and gynecological problems.There are also many local people who are consideredto be experts on herbal medicine, sometimes requiringpayment in cash or kind. Cost varies depending on thenature of medicine, but it can be significant.

As modern medicine becomes increasinglypopular, the younger generation is showing less interestin traditional medicine. However, traditionalpractitioners continue to be revered and their servicesare often requested.

Human Resources

In some cases, qualified health personnelappointed to work in the remote provinces return tourban areas after a short stay. The reasons include lowgovernment salaries, poor accommodation and roads,poor communication, being far from their family, andhaving little opportunity to supplement their incomeafter working hours.

It is important for the health system to recruit muchof its workforce from the remote regions rather thandepending on trained urban personnel. Given the localrecruits’ contacts with the community, they are morelikely to return to the community after training and staythere to work, , , , , providing services to their neighbors andcommunity. The existing health volunteers are anotherpotential human resource and can work within the newhealth system, but they must receive better training andmust thoroughly understand the referral system.

During visits in Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri, thestudy team investigated the participation of indigenouspeoples as health care providers. In general, lowlanders,


who did not stay long in the province, staffed theprovincial hospitals. However, there were some staffmembers with local backgrounds at the provincialDepartment of Health. The health centers generally hadlocal staff who were trained in regional centers or byNGOs.

In Ratanakiri, the staff of six of the nine healthcenters are almost all from among the indigenouspeople, and Health Unlimited plans to involve either thehealth center staff or the commune health workers inthe health post system (one male and one female foreach health post). They will be trained according to aspecific training module and also receive follow-upcontinuing education.

Health Infrastructure

Based on the results of workshops in 1995 andthen later in 1995–1996, the Ministry of Health starteddesigning a health coverage plan for the whole country(21 provinces) with the support of WHO. An importantactor in the new system is the health center: there areapproximately 900 in operation. Each health center issupposed to cover a population of about 4,000–11,000,organized in health catchment areas. The health centeris designed particularly for those parts of the countrywith low-density populations living far from moretraditional health care providers.

Every district of Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri has itsown health center. However, the population in thehighland area is spread out thinly, so that distance stillcauses problems for people in accessing health services.The user fee system adopted by the Government alsocontributes to limit access to the health service. Mostvillagers complained that they lack money to pay thehealth center—KR500 (US$0.12) for consultation andKR2,500 (US$0.60) for staying overnight.

CIVIL SOCIETY AND GOVERNANCE

Residents of a village are expected to conform tothe traditional authority of the group, which rests withthe village elders. These are a group of older malevillagers (sometimes also consisting of women as in thecase of Tuy village), chosen and accepted by community

consensus as “those who know how to speak” and“those who know the difference between right andwrong.” They play a multiple, interconnected role in thelife of the village, both as the conservators andimplementers of customary law, and as arbitrators anddecision makers in disputes between villagers. Theirauthority is reinforced by their knowledge of spiritualaffairs. The elders lead important communal ceremoniessuch as cow or buffalo sacrifices and village feasts. Theyare instrumental in preserving and handing down thecollective identity of the group in their role as storytellersof the myths and legends, which make up both thevillage and the ethnic group’s social history. In situationswhere villagers gather together, such as at communalfeasts and spiritual ceremonies, the elders will oftenrecount such stories, and in every village there arealways at least several individuals admired for their skillat telling ancient stories with a wealth of detail, broughtto life with their own personal embellishments(White, 1996).

Strong leadership and effective systems of decisionmaking are crucial to the survival of such close-knitcommunities as highland villages. It is understood thatthe elders’ advice and decisions will be respected andfollowed, thus maintaining good working social relationsat village level. Along with the elder group, there is avillage chief who is chosen by the Government. In thevillages where the SEILA program operates, particularlyin Ratanakiri, there is a VDC chosen through the villageelection process with help from the developmentorganization.

These leaderships play a complementary role toeach other. The village chief is the only person who hasauthority over the village and is linked to the upperadministration. The government policy and programsare implemented through that person. The VDC isresponsible for carrying out community developmentactivities. Its members include both men and women.

The development structure in Ratanakiri Provinceas well as in other SEILA provinces operates from theprovincial level (the PRDC) to the community level.Through development projects, different committeesand working groups are sometimes established, suchas a women’s group, village health committee, naturalresource management committee, gender focal person,village volunteer teacher, and village volunteerveterinary officer. The village chief and the VDC haveworked together for development projects in Tuy village.


Although the village chief is appointed by the provincialauthority, the elders are the decision makers on all issuesin Tuy village. For example, if the chief village cannotend a conflict in the village, both sides must be put tothe elders to solve the problem.

Based on the development needs of Ratanakiri,three indigenous working groups have been established:the Indigenous Women’s Network, the CommunityAdvocacy Working Group, and the Highlanders

Association. These working groups work with theindigenous peoples. They have important roles asbridges, building capacity in the field of natural resourcemanagement in the local community, and bringingopinions on development activities to the provincialauthorities and national Government in order toadvocate for equitable laws concerning indigenouspeoples’ issues.


In Cambodia, ADB has four activities relevant toindigenous peoples: an Agriculture Sector Program,Health and Education Needs of Ethnic Minorities in

the Greater Mekong Subregion, Poverty Reduction andEnvironmental Management in Greater MekongSubregion Watersheds, and an Education SectorProgram (in preparation; not reviewed here).

AGRICULTURE SECTOR PROGRAM

The objectives of this program are to tap theproductive potential of the agriculture sector in order tostimulate overall economic growth, improve individualincomes of the majority of the population, improveemployment opportunities, improve food security,reduce migration from rural to urban areas, conservethe environment, and provide an economic base toincrease government revenues for developmentexpenditures in the health, education, and social sectors.

The program includes measures to improve socialstability in the rural areas, enhance farmers’ access tomarkets and market information, increase farmers’access to inputs, enhance access to finance for the ruralpopulation, and promote the most efficient use of thegovernment’s budgetary resources in rural areas.

From 1979 to 1992, all private ownership of landwas formally abolished and land became state property.The 1992 Land Law was generally recognized to beinconsistent and unclear. In the absence of a clearlegislative framework and registration and enforcementmechanisms, powerful people, including officials andmilitary officers, have been involved in land grabbing.As a result, many people, especially the poor andpowerless, have lost their land.

Recognizing the importance of land tenuresecurity by farmers, ADB required that the 1992 LandLaw be revised as one of the conditions under theAgriculture Sector Program and provided technicalassistance for drafting the new law. Many NGOsprovided support for and were involved in thedrafting process. Seminars and workshops related toland security, options for landownership, andsustainable development were held in Phnom Penhand Ratanakiri with involvement of indigenouspeoples. As noted earlier, these workshops andseminars provided useful contributions to the sectionon “immovable property of indigenous communities”in the draft new Land Law.

For the indigenous highland peoples, the newLand Law is very important because it recognizes therights of indigenous people in their traditional landuse. However, the effectiveness of the new law alsodepends on the drafting and implementing ofappropriate decrees and regulations by governmentofficers. Further, people must be made aware of theirrights and obligations under the law and how torealize their rights. For this purpose, the Governmenthas requested ADB assistance in further developmentand implementation of land legislation. A newtechnical assistance project, “Implementation ofLand Legislation,” is included in the 2000 countryassistance program for Cambodia as part of theoverall assistance to improve governance. Thatproject has three components: ( i ) draft ingimplementing decrees, subdecrees, and regulations;(ii) training the judiciary and others; and (iii)dissemination of information to the public.Dissemination of information to the public will becarried out in close cooperation with NGOs and civilsociety.

ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANKEXPERIENCE

6


HEALTH AND EDUCATION NEEDS OFETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE

GREATER MEKONG SUBREGION

The goal of this technical assistance was to fosterthe well-being of ethnic minorities living in themountainous and border areas of the GMS and toincrease their opportunities for good health andeducation. Four countries were involved: Cambodia, LaoPDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

The specific objectives were (i) to identifyconstraints that impede indigenous peoples’ access toresponsive health and education services; (ii) to identifylocal and national opportunities that exist and can befostered to address needs and remove or reduceconstraints; (iii) to identify and document “goodpractices” of responsive health and education services;and (iv) to identify strategies, approaches, tools, andinterventions that respect minorities’ chosen ways ofliving and organize and support efforts to disseminateand exchange research findings, case studies, and otherexperiences with ethnic minority organizations and thegeneral public, as well as key personnel in health,education, and related sectors.

The study showed that indigenous peoples havea significantly lower health and education status thanthe national average and that they encounter numerousbarriers to using health and education services. Thestudy confirmed trends in GMS countries related tohealth and education of ethnic minorities. It noted thatthe recent economic trends and the general trendtoward cost recovery of communal services may resultin reduced health and education access for poor ethnicminority populations that already tend to be amongthe most marginalized groups.

Other factors influencing health and educationof indigenous peoples in the GMS include

• the political history of each country, whichcontinues to influence the making andimplementation of policy, as well as societalrelations;

• rapid population growth and migration, whichhave important impacts on service reach anddelivery;

• environmental factors, e.g., deforestation,erosion, decl ine in water quali ty, lostbiodiversity, and agriculture practices, whichhave changed and are changing the cultures andeconomic opportunities in many minorityvillages;

• income inequalities, which are growing withineach country and across the GMS;

• HIV/AIDS, which poses a special threat to ethnicminority populations; and

• decentralization, which poses implementationchallenges while encouraging more localinvolvement and community in the planning andimplementation of social services andinfrastructure development.

In the case of Cambodia, decentralization hashad a particularly difficult recent history and is stillin the early stages, during the long process ofnational reconstruction and development. Thispolitical and economic reconstruction has sought tobring rights and services to all Cambodian citizens,including ethnic minority populations. TheGovernment recognizes the ethnic diversity of thenation and has emphasized the needs and interestsof all citizens.

In recent times, the indigenous people who livein the wide and scattered areas of the northeasternprovinces have faced unprecedented change. Theever-evolving poli t ical environment, newadministrative practices, the rapidly changingeconomy, and the migration of groups from thelowland areas have had a major impact on the ethnicminority groups that reside in this region. Withgreater integration of the national economy, thenortheastern highland areas are increasinglyexploited for commercial purposes.

Government policies that implicitly supportthese changes are also inadvertently encouraging the“khmerization” of the highland populations bymoving them close to roads, encouraging settledagriculture, and trying to integrate them into thenational economy. This offers both opportunities andrisks for the indigenous population.

Asian Developement Bank Experience 37

The study proposed three health and educationprograms to assist the indigenous peoples inCambodia: (i) HIV/AIDS in northeastern provinces,(ii) nutrition and indigenous people, and (iii) primaryschools in remote areas.

POVERTY REDUCTION ANDENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN

GREATER MEKONG SUBREGIONWATERSHEDS

A Cambodia country report was prepared by ADBconsultants as part this project.2 The aim was to preparea prefeasibility proposal for a possible Cambodian-ADBprogram on Poverty Reduction and Environmental

2 RETA No. 5771. Cambodia Country Report, Margules Poyry Consultants in association with ANZDEC Limited, New Zealand,

and GFA-Agrar, Germany.3 Meeting with Ratanakiri-based NGOs, 23 May 2001.

Management in the Se San Watershed. The consultancyproposed a range of project interventions, coveringinstitutional strengthening and capacity building,community development, livelihood systemsdevelopment, infrastructure development, andenvironmental management. The intended targetbeneficiaries were rural communities of five districts inRatanakiri and Stung Treng provinces, the mainemphasis being on greater food security anddevelopment of income-generating activities. This reportand its proposals were subsequently criticized by anetwork of NGOs in Ratanakiri, concerned at theabsence of input by local communities into the projectdesign. They argued furthermore that procedures wereinconsistent with requirements of ADB’s Policy onIndigenous Peoples.3 There are no indications at presentthat ADB intends to proceed with this proposed project.

A National Workshop on Capacity Buildingfor Indigenous/Ethnic Minority Issues andPoverty Reduction, organized by MRD and

supported by ADB RETA 5953, was conducted inPhnom Penh on 13–14 September 2001, withparticipation of indigenous peoples’ representativesfrom the four northeastern provinces.

The objectives of the workshop were (i) toexchange experiences between indigenous/ethnicrepresentatives and other participants on the resultsof consultation with indigenous communities innortheastern Cambodia; and (ii) to gather indigenous/ethnic minority requirements and recommendationsin order to formulate a specific action plan forindigenous/ethnic minority development innortheastern Cambodia.

The workshop participants listed a number ofgeneral concerns and specific issues in education,health, and agriculture, and produced a nationalaction plan to put forward to development partnerssuch as ADB.

GENERAL CONCERNS

• National and provincial authorities should answerto the urgent needs of indigenous/ethnic minoritycommunities as well as respect their rights byassisting them to have a better life.

• Priority is to be given to four issues in indigenouspeoples’ development: land and forest, agriculture,education, and health.

• MRD should play a regulating and coordinatingrole between the new Department of EthnicMinorities Development and IMC for indigenouspeoples’ development.

• ADB should provide more information on land useand management, especially for the indigenousminority communities to enable them toparticipate fully in the implementation of the newLand Law.

• The workshop discussion and recommendationsshould be formulated into national andinternational issues. The Ministry of Planningshould include the recommendations in nationalplanning.

• IMC should prepare a national document on thefindings and recommendations taken from theworkshop to inform IMC ministers and proposeit as a basis for discussions at the national level.IMC should also conduct regular meetings tostudy in more detail the problems of indigenouspeoples.

• IMC should include the Ministry of Culture and FineArts among its members because this ministry isinvolved in the preservation of ethnic culture.

EDUCATION

• ADB and IMC should assist the formulation of, andprovide material and financial support for, an NFEsystem, focusing on vocational training andteacher training for literacy. People fromindigenous ethnic minority groups should berecruited as resource persons for these trainingprograms.

• School infrastructure and more teachers areneeded for indigenous communities in remote andisolated areas.

7 TOWARD A NATIONALACTION PLAN


• The Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport shouldencourage teachers in the highland area toencourage indigenous children to attend schoolat no cost.

• Government, ADB, and NGOs should supportethnic teachers or teachers from other areas of thecountry in order to keep them working in villageswhere there are schools but no teachers.

• The Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, incooperation with ADB or NGOs, should supportthe existing regional teacher training center byproviding scholarships and accommodation forindigenous students in order to strengthen thecapacity of indigenous teachers in northeasternCambodia.

• ADB and other aid agencies should support long-term teacher training programs.

HEALTH

• Government and aid agencies should pay moreattention to primary health care of indigenouspeoples.

• Government and NGOs should take measures toprevent the transmission of AIDS and otherepidemic diseases.

• The Ministry of Health should provide trainingskills, support, and motivation to health staff.

• The Government should recruit indigenouspeoples to undergo skills training in healthtechniques and practices.

• The Government and ADB should provide healthposts and mobile clinics, which are the appropriatetype of facility for remote areas.

• The Government should encourage and providescholarships for indigenous peoples so that theyare able to become medical specialists.

AGRICULTURE

• There is a need to assess where improvement insustainability of agriculture in northeasternCambodia can be best made, e.g., in cultivationmethods, developing crop varieties with localresistance, income generation, and animal raising,and to develop these areas accordingly.

• The indigenous peoples propose that theGovernment, in particular the Department of LandTitles, immediately take measures on traditionallandownership. The application fee to process landtitles should be small.

• IMC, especially MRD, should lobby for the ForestryLaw to include protection of the quality of life ofthe indigenous peoples whose culture andlivelihood are mainly based on forestry products.

ACTION PLAN

Introduction

Cambodia has taken important steps in recentyears to recognize the identity and rights of its ethnicminority groups, including its vulnerable highlandpeoples located mainly in Mondulkiri and Ratanakiriprovinces, and to promote programs for their povertyreduction. Legislative measures include a chapter inthe new Land Law on the immovable property ofindigenous communities/minorities and provisions inthe new Forestry Law concerning customary userrights and management of community and privateforests. Administrative measures include the veryrecent creation of a Department of Ethnic MinoritiesDevelopment within the Ministry of RuralDevelopment.

At the same time, important measures have beentaken to develop medium-term plans and programs ofpoverty reduction for all Cambodian citizens. Nationalpoverty reduction strategies have been prepared by theCambodian Government with technical assistance frommultilateral agencies including ADB and the World Bank.

Toward a National Action Plan 41

Ethnic minority groups are nevertheless facingsevere problems in practice, and are at risk of beingmarginalized from the benefits of economic and socialdevelopment. Their problems include lack of landsecurity, increasing difficulty in earning their livelihoodthrough traditional forestry and other pursuits,inadequate alternative income opportunities, pooraccess to credit or to marketing outlets for their produce,and problems of health and education.

In an action plan there is a need for clear targetsand clearly identified activities over a fixed period oftime in order to confront these problems and to reducethe poverty facing ethnic minorities and indigenouspeoples.

The action plan agreed upon at the nationalworkshop was divided into (i) substantive aspects of aprogram; (ii) institutional aspects, including the divisionof responsibilities between different governmentministries, and mechanisms for consultation with ethnicminority groups; and (iii) the role of internationalcooperation, and proposals that can be put forward toIOs including ADB.

Substantive Issues

Identifying vulnerable ethnic minorities

There is a need to identify as clearly as possiblewhich ethnic minority groups deserve special attentionin poverty reduction programs. Not all ethnic minoritygroups can be considered vulnerable. There is evidencethat some ethnic minority groups are disproportionatelypoor and that their poverty levels have been increasingin recent years. These groups mostly reside innortheastern Cambodia.

Mainstreaming the concerns of ethnicminorities in poverty reduction strategies

There is a need to give more attention toindigenous ethnic minorities in the context of overallpoverty reduction strategies. Issues related to naturalresource management such as land and forestry,enhancing livelihood security and opportunity forincome generation, and health and education shouldbe considered as international development targets forpoverty reduction. It is recommended that the results

of this regional technical assistance be incorporatedin poverty reduction strategies, and further refined withreliable data, to ensure that these concerns are fullyincorporated in poverty strategies and action programsover the next 5-year period.

Enhancing land security

A legislative framework is now in place forrecognizing indigenous/ethnic minority rights overtraditional land areas, but there is an urgent needfor a practical program of action. It is important toident i fy, del ineate, and demarcate areas ofindigenous landownership, and to resolve claimsbetween ethnic minori ty and external landclaimants at the earliest opportunity. There is a needfor measures to stop immediately the process ofland encroachment by outsiders or newcomers,especially in the areas near cities and along theroad, by postponing provision of land titles until theprocess of mapping and demarcation of communityland has been done. Local communities should beempowered to map their own land areas incollaboration with the Ministry of Land Managementand other government agencies as consideredrelevant. Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces couldbe assigned this task over the 5-year period2002–2006.

Enhancing income and livelihood security

There is an urgent need to enhance the incomesecurity of vulnerable ethnic minorities throughtargeted programs of assistance. Incomes can beenhanced in many ways, through access to use of forestproducts, through marketing of produce, throughagricultural and other wage employment, or throughself-employment and home-based employment forartisanal and other activities. It is important to haveintegrated programs of action, sometimes undertakentogether with NGOs. Fixed targets could be set forimplementing integrated pilot programs of assistancefor income generation.

As the legislative framework related to the forestwill be ready in the near future, there is a need for aprogram of assistance in organizing communityforestry, including mapping and demarcation, and todisseminate knowledge of the new Forest Law to


promote its clear understanding among the indigenouscommunities. The northeastern provinces should bethe targets of implementation of such pilot and long-term assistance programs in 2002–2012.

Moreover, programs need to reach out to remoteregions, such as in Mondulkiri Province, where thereis acute poverty but so far a limited number of nationaland international assistance programs.

Education

The policy priority of the Government ineducation is to ensure equitable access and qualityimprovement for 9 years of basic education for eachchild by around 2010. A crosscutting priority is tostrengthen the legislative and regulatory framework forquality assurance and sector performance monitoringacross subsectors (SEDP II). An associated priority inSEDP II is to reduce direct and indirect costs to parentsthrough a significant increase in performance-basedteacher salaries.

There is an urgent need to ensure equitableaccess and quality improvement of education in thenortheastern area through, e.g., improvement in theeducation infrastructure; multigrade teaching;improvement in teachers’ salaries and incentives;improvement in curricula and textbooks; harmonizingthe school and agriculture calendar; using as far aspossible in-community human resources; establishinga boarding school in the district to allow children inremote areas to receive formal education; andextending NFE to remote communities.

For human resource development in the highlandarea, there is an urgent need to set up an assistanceprogram in formal and nonformal education. Aminimum 10-year program should be set up forRatanakiri and Mondulkiri.

Health

A number of important initiatives to strengthenthe health system have been made, such as extensionof rural health services on the basis of the HealthCoverage Plan adopted in 1996 and budget reform basedon the 1996 Health Financing Charter.

The Government recognizes that, in order tofulfill its constitutional obligations to guarantee thehealth of its citizens and provide free consultation for

the poor, more public resources must be provided tothe health sector.

There is a need to have an assistance program onhealth in northeastern Cambodia, which should includesuch activities as improving the health policy to balancethe high cost and poor quality of services offered atpublic facilities; ensuring that the poor are not charged;exchanging information about users and providers;indigenous community participation in designing andmaking decisions about their primary health care;developing a strategy to keep health workers in thehighland areas; promoting and recruiting personnel fromamong the indigenous peoples; training health workersin local health centers to be capable of offering aminimum package of services; and using mobile clinics.

Institutional Concerns

The recent decision to create a Department ofEthnic Minorities Development will increase theattention already given to these vulnerable groupsby the IMC. It is still important to find an appropriatecoordinating mechanism, through which the manyconcerns of ethnic minorities can be given dueattention in the work of all government ministries.

Whatever decision is taken, it is vital to find amechanism through which ethnic minorities can beconsulted over development priorities that affect themdirectly, and can participate in the design andimplementation of such projects. Cambodia shouldpropose to establish local councils of ethnic minoritiesto advise on development and investment policies andprograms as do some other Southeast Asian countries.

Cambodia could establish consultative bodies, ateither local or regional levels, over a 1-year period.This would be an important aspect of the country’scommitment to participatory governance.

The Role of International Cooperation

International cooperation will be of muchimportance in enabling Cambodia to uplift the socialand economic conditions of its ethnic minorities. SomeIOs, including ADB and the World Bank, have adoptedspecific policies on indigenous peoples in order tosafeguard their identity and rights in the process ofdevelopment.


An action plan needs to include priorities for suchinternational assistance. It can take many forms. As inthe past it can consist of policy advice, in such areas asland and forestry legislation and policy. It can devise aparticular program of technical assistance, for example,in an area such as land registration for ethnicminorities. A government may wish to have a targetedproject or loan, directed particularly at the needs ofethnic minorities or at a geographic region whereethnic minorities are mainly located. There are several

ADB projects in neighboring countries, for example,where indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities areintended as the primary beneficiaries. Alternatively,there may be a need for improved consultative andparticipatory procedures, to ensure that projects insuch areas as health and education are sensitive tothe needs of ethnic minorities. Technical assistancemight also be provided for capacity building for suchconsultative bodies.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

ADB (Asian Development Bank). 1996. Report and Recommendation of the President to theBoard of Directors on a Proposed Loan and Technical Assistance to the Kingdom ofCambodia for the Agriculture Sector Program. ADB, Manila.

. 1999a. The Bank’s Policy on Indigenous Peoples. ADB, Manila.

. 1999b. Inception Report of Sustainable Forest Management Project. TA 3152, Cambodia.ADB, Manila.

. 2000a. Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management in Remote Greater MekongSubregion Watersheds. Draft Final Report Volume II of IV: A Proposal for ProjectInterventions: Se San – Cambodia. ADB, Manila.

. 2000b. Technical Assistance to the Kingdom of Cambodia for implementation of the LandLegislation. ADB, Manila.

. 2000c. Programs of Good Practice: Health and Education Needs of Ethnic Minorities inthe GMS. Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

. 2000d. Cambodia Country Report: Health and Education Needs of Ethnic Minorities inthe GMS. Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Baird, I.G. 1996. Kravet and Kreng Ethnic Groups: An Overview of Livelihood and NaturalResources in Two Upland Veunsai and Taveng Districts. Non-Timber Forest Products(NTFP) Project, Banlung.

. 2001. An Update on the Situation in Communities Located Along the Se San River Impactedby the Yali Falls Dam in Northeast Cambodia, and Consultations with Local PeopleRegarding Establishing a Network of Se San Communities. Non-Timber Forest ProductsProject, Banlung.

Biddulph, R. 2000. Where has the Land Gone? Vol.4. Making the Poor More Visible: Landlessnessand Development Research Project. Oxfam, UK.

Bourdier, F. 1996. Provincial Statistics and Statistics of Ministry of Interior, 1995. Phnom Penh.

Cambodian Area Rehabilitation and Regeneration Project. 1996. Building the Foundation ofthe SEILA Program. The CARERE Work Plan 1996..... CARERE, Phnom Penh.

CAS (Center for Advanced Study). 1996. Interdisciplinary Research on Ethnic Groups inCambodia. Report, 1996. CAS, Phnom Penh.

CIDSE (Coopération Internationale pour le Développement de la Solidarité). 2000. CIDSEAnnual Report 1999.CIDSE, Phnom Penh.

Colm, S. 1997. Options for Land Security among Indigenous Communities. Non-Timber ForestProducts Project, Banlung.

Conference on Strengthening Partnerships in Community Natural Resource Management inRatanakiri Province. 2001. Banlung. Draft.

Coomaraswamy, R., B. Goshal, and J. H. Ku. 1993. Minorities in Cambodia, InternationalCenter for Ethnic Studies and Minority Rights Group International, London.

Cultural Resource Study: Impact of the Hero Taiwan Concession on Site of Religious andCultural Significance in O Chum District, Ratanakiri. 2000. Banlung.

Department of Environment, Ratanakiri. 2000. Report on the End of Project Evaluation of theCommunity-Based Natural Resources Management Project. Banlung.


Emerson, B. 1997. The Natural Resources and Livelihood Study, Ratanakiri Province, NECambodia. Non-Timber Forest Products Project, Banlung.

Figueiredo, P. and R. Walraven. 2001. Cambodia: An Overview of the Land Sector. KosanaConsulting AB, Hedesunda, Sweden.

Fisheries Office, Ratanakiri Province in Cooperation with the Non-Timber Forest ProductsProject, Ratanakiri. 2000. A Study of the Downstream Impacts of the Yali Falls Dam inthe Se San River Basin in Ratanakiri, Northeast Cambodia. Banlung.

Forrester, Elisabeth. 1997. Analysis of the Situation of Education in the North and NortheasternProvinces of Cambodia. Remote Areas Survey Report. Ministry of Education, Youth, andSport, Phnom Penh.

Hun Thearith and Heng Kim Van. 2001. Consultation with Indigenous Minority People in ThreeVillages of Mondulkiri (in Khmer). Center for Advanced Study, Phnom Penh.

Husselskog, M. 2000. Changing Livelihoods and Choosing Lifestyle: A Study of Natural ResourceManagement and Potential of Decentralization in Trak village, Kok Lak Commune, Veusai,Ratanakiri, Cambodia. Phnom Penh.

International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Center for Human Rights andDemocracy Development (ICHRDD). 1996. Guidelines on ILO Convention No. 169.Concerning Indigenous and Hill Tribes Peoples. ILO, Geneva; and ICHRDD, Montreal.

Inter-Ministerial Committee for Highland Peoples Development (IMC). 1997a. Project Activitiesfor the Highland Peoples’ Development in the Northeast of Cambodia. Paper preparedfor the HPP/ILO Conference on Grassroots Development, 12 November 1997. ChiangMai Workshop, 17–21 November 1997. IMC, Phnom Penh.

.1997b. General Policy for Highland People Development, September 1997 (Final draft).IMC, Phnom Penh.

. 2000. The Three Training Workshops on Highland Development Management inCambodia. IMC, Phnom Penh.

. 2001. Draft Report on Capacity Building for Indigenous People/Ethnic MinoritiesIssues and Poverty Reduction. IMC, Phnom Penh.

ICES (International Center for Ethnic Studies) and Minority Rights Group International,London.1995. Minorities in Cambodia. ICES, London.

Jennar, R.M. 1995. The Cambodian Constitutions (1953–1959). White Lotus, Bangkok.

Kelkar G., W. Yunxian, S. Sugiati, and H. Meijers. 1997. Women in Agriculture and NaturalResources Management, Highland Communities in Ratanakiri, Cambodia. Gender andDevelopment Studies Center, School of Environment Resources and Development,Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok.

Kusakabe, K. 1999. Report on the End of Project Evaluation of the Reducing Women’s Workloadof Highland Women in Ratanakiri Project (Rat/GEN/9801). Banlung.

MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. 2000. Agricultural Statistics 1999–2000.MAFF, Phnom Penh.

McAndrew, J.P. 2000. Indigenous Adaptation to a Rapidly Changing Economy: The Experience ofTwo Tampuon Villages in Northeast Cambodia. CIDSE, Phnom Penh.

MEYS (Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport). 2000a. Education Sector Development Program(ESDP). Inception Report. MEYS, Phnom Penh.

. 2000b. Enabling Education Strategy and Poverty Program Development Process. FinalReport. MEYS, Phnom Penh.

. 2001a. Education Sector Support Program 2001–2005. MEYS, Phnom Penh.

. 2001b. Education Strategic Plan 2001–2005. MEYS, Phnom Penh.

Bibliography 47

Ministry of Environment. 1999. Environment: Concepts and Issues. A Focus on Cambodia. 1999.Ministry of Environment, Phnom Penh.

Ministry of Health. 1996. National Health Charter on Health Finance 1996. Ministry of Health,Phnom Penh

. National Strategic Plan STD/HIV/AIDS: Prevention and Care, 1998–2000. Ministry ofHealth, Phnom Penh.

Ministry of Planning. 2000. Cambodian Human Development Report 1999: Village Economyand Development. Ministry of Planning, Phnom Penh.

. 2001a. First Socio-Economic Development Plan 1996–2000. Ministry of Planning,Phnom Penh.

. 2001b. Participatory Poverty Assessment. (Draft). Ministry of Planning, Phnom Penh.

Mitchell, K. 2001. Health and Healing Among the Phnong People in Mondulkiri Province.Mondulkiri.

National Institute of Statistics (Cambodia), Ministry of Planning, and United NationsPopulation Fund. 1998. General Population Census of Cambodia, 1998. ProvisionalPopulation Totals. National Institute of Statistics, Phnom Penh.

Partner for Development. 1999a. Northeast Cambodia Community DevelopmentProgram. PRA of Pchol Village, Stung Treng Povince. Partner for Development,Phnom Penh.

. 1999b. Northeast Cambodia Community Development Program. PRA of Sre TrengVillage, Kratie Povince. Partner for Development, Phnom Penh.

. 2000a. Northeast Cambodia Community Development Program. PRA of RumpoatVillage, Stung Treng Povince. Partner for Development, Phnom Penh.

. 2001. Northeast Cambodia Community Development Program. PRA of Kantro Village,Kratie Povince. Partner for Development, Phnom Penh.

. 2000b. Northeast Cambodia Community Development Program. PRA of Chrab Village,Kratie Povince. Partner for Development, Phnom Penh.

. 2000c. Northeast Cambodia Community Development Program. PRA of Thmar HalDei Kraham Village, Kratie Povince. Partner for Development, Phnom Penh.

. 2000d. Northeast Cambodia Community Development Program. PRA of Saat Village,Kratie Povince. Partner for Development, Phnom Penh.

Pen, D. 1996. Cambodia and Its Ethnic Minorities Policy. In International Conference on AsianMinority Cultures in Transition Diversity, Identities, and Encounters. 12–15 December1996, Munster, Germany.

Plant, R. 1998. Issues in Indigenous Poverty and Development. Inter-American DevelopmentBank, Washington, DC.

Pordié, L. 1998. Contribution a l’Etude des Plantes Medicinales Utilisées dans le Traitement duPaludisme et les Fièvres Symptomatiques. Médecin Du Monde, Phnom Penh.

Report on Results of Evaluation Study on Capacity Building for Indigenous/Ethnic MinoritiesIssue and Poverty Reduction. 2001. Washington, DC.

Romeo, L. 2000. The SEILA Program and Decentralized Planning in Cambodia. Phnom Penh.

Royal Government of Cambodia. 2000a. Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. PhnomPenh.

. 2000b. SEILA Investment Plan 2000. Phnom Penh.

. 2001a. Governance Action Plan. Phnom Penh.

. 2001b. Forestry Law, Draft 20 July 2001. Phnom Penh.


. 2001c. Land Law, Draft 20 July 2001. Phnom Penh.

. 2001d. Second Five Year Socio-Economic Development Plan (Second draft). PhnomPenh.

Seminar on Security of Land Tenure for Ethnic Minorities in Ratanakiri Province, 1997, DraftSummary Report. IMC, Phnom Penh.

Sugiati, S. 1997. A Preliminary Socio-Economic (Anthropological) Study of RatanakiriProvince of Northeast Cambodia. Second draft. IDRC/CARERE, Banlung, Cambodia.

Tse, Rav, and Phat Phalit. 2000. Immigration and Some Consequences for Indigenous Peoples.PRDC/CARERE, Banlung.

UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). 1993. Development of Highland Peoplethrough Capacity Building. UNDP, Phnom Penh.

UNDP and UNOPS CARERE. 1999. Evaluation Report of Non-Formal Education (RAT/EDU/9702). Ratanakiri. Banlung.

White, J. 1996. Of Spirit and Service: Health and Healing Among the Hill Tribes of RatanakiriProvince, Cambodia. Banlung.

WHO (World Health Organization). 1998. Health Sector Reform, Phase III Project 1998–2000.Briefing to the Minister of Health. WHO, Phnom Penh.

Workshop on Community-Based Natural Resource Management and its Promotion in Ratanakiri(Report). 2001. Banlung.

Workshop on Forest Concession in Ratanakiri and Community Participation, SEILA Ratanakiri.2000. Banlung.

World Concern International Cambodia. 1998. An Agricultural Study of Phav and Chan Villages.Banlung.

World Food Programme. 2001. Identifying Poor Areas in Cambodia. FAO, Rome.

Documents

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES/ETHNIC MINORITIES - … Characteristics ... groups to being disadvantaged in comparison with ... 2 Indigenous Peoples/Ethnic Minorities and Poverty Reduction: