Cambodia Land Accessibility And Suitability

Land Dynamics and Access to Land in Rural Cambodia

Suitability – Accessibility – SustainabilityVortrag auf der AK-SOA (DGfG) Jahrestagung 2006

Dr. Jan-Peter Mund(CIM/gtz Integrated Expert)

Royal University of AgriculturePhnom Penh, Cambodia

24-25 June 2006Integrated Expert: Jan-Peter Mund (PhD Geographer) AK-SOA - Jahrestagung 2006 2

Suitability – Accessibility –Sustainability

Content:Status Quo Analysis

Trends and dynamics in the Cambodian land sectorLand as the crucial factor for agrarian transitionAccessibility of land in rural Cambodia

Solution approachSocial Land concessions for Agricultural DevelopmentSuitability analysis for sustainable productionDisparities in land suitability for agricultural purposes

Discussion: The inevitable Land Reform ?


Land issues in Cambodia


The Vision of Land

Land or secure access to land is next to water one of the most crucial factors for sustainable livelihood in developing countries.

Land is among the important resources in subsistence economic strategies, especially for rural population as well as urban poor.

Land and land tenure security in post conflict as well as post socialistic countries are considered of high priority for political an economic reforms in these countries

International development organizations like World Bank, ADB, gtz and other follow a vision of secure land tenure systems in favor for the poor.


Trends and dynamics in the Cambodian land sector

Status Quo AnalysisHigh population density and population growth in rice growing lowland areas

Continuous migration of young farmers into upland areas and agricultural concession areas

Intensive agrarian transition into cash crop production

High pressure on natural resources

Large scale land claims by the administration and by powerful elites

Distribution of land use rights to large scale agro-industrial investors

Uncertain land use planning measures on province and district level

Uncertain land possession rights for recently occupied plots

Continuous political intervention of the state into land regulations


High population growth and density in rice growing lowland areas

Around 50% of the Cambodian population is under 25 years oldAnnual rate of population growth declined from 2.49 to 1.81 %/a (1998-2004)75% - 85% of the population is employed in the primary sector (NIS, 2004)65% does simply rice farming (MAFF, 2004)90% of Cambodia’s poor citizen lives in rural areas (World Bank, 2005)84 % of all Cambodians still live in rural areas (Nat. Inst. of Statistics, 2004)


High percentage of rural population in Cambodia


Migration into upland areas and agricultural concession areas

Figures of Landlessness:15-17 % urban population3-12 % rural population25-30% rural populationunder 25y


Continuous migration into upland and agricultural concession areas

Categories of MigrationRural to urban

Urban to urban

Rural to rural

Chain migration

Forced migration due to evictions

Temporary labor migration

Contract migration into concessions


Migration into upland areas and agricultural concession areas

District of in-migrationDistrict of in – and out-migrationDistrict of out-migration

Source:Migration Study 2004K. Augustat


Intensive agrarian transition into cash crop production

Possession Rights in cultivated land

plots of lessthan 5 ha

Concession Rights in plantation land

plots biggerthan 5 ha and less than

10.000 ha


High pressure on natural resources

Cambodia had a rich forest cover of around 73% of total area in 1962 (Tichit, 1981)

Rates of forest cover decline

to 69% in 1976

to 56% in 2002

Flooded forests around the TonleSap Lake were reduced to 15 %

Most mangroves of the upper Mekong Delta have been cleared

High level logging has been a major agent of forest degradation

Increase of scrublands results from human and fire induced biological succession


Large scale land claims by the administration and by powerful elites

Concessions types applied in CambodiaForest concessionsFormer logging concessionsEconomic concessions for agricultural developmentEconomic concessionsfor Development and InfrastructureSocial land concessionsFishing concessionsMining concessionsLand controlled by the Military


Uncertain Legal Categories of Land in Cambodia in 2005

Uncertain land possession rights, especially for recently, cleared or occupied plots.

Secure Tenure rights according the Land Law of 2001:

Receipts

Certificates

Land occupationand land usealready sincefive years

Draft: Cooper,G. & Mund,J.-P.


Accessibility of land in rural Cambodia Interim conclusion

Forest and agricultural Land in Cambodia is either:Protected as Natural Reserves or National ParksOccupied by Farmers or large scale ConcessionairesClaimed by Administrative or other powerful political elitesOnly partly titled (300.000 out of 7-9 Mio. expected titles issued until now)Not available on a transparent land marketNot yet comprehensively mapped and marked as:

State public lands (Infrastructure, Rivers, Lakes, Parks, etc)State private land (Areas of unoccupied land that are not under private ownership and do not fit the definition of State Public Land)Collective Property (religious property, land of indigenous minorities)Private land (legally approved private property)

Access to Land is under permanently rising threat


Social Land concessions for Agricultural Development

Solution Approach (Draft):LASED – Land Allocation for Social and Economic DevelopmentCommune Based Social Land Concession Planning and Land Allocation

Land use planning: support to communes to prepare land use plans that take into consideration the needs to identify areas for expansion / allocation to needy householdsLand identification: a participative and technically sound process to identify, map, and register state private land for distribution as Social Land ConcessionsLand recipient selection: a community managed process to identify and select eligible land recipient and provide them with adequate land for their livelihoodLand allocation: ensuring the access of eligible recipients to sufficient and suitable residential and farming land

Rural Development Services and InvestmentIntegrated rural development: a process to identify community needs in terms of social and economic support services complementary to land distribution and to provide required services and infrastructure to beneficiary communities in a sustainable way


LASED procedures

Collection of secondary data regarding land management from public institutions

Training and Planning

Workshop for DWG

Awareness raising and provision of

information in relevant

commune(s)

Preliminary Land Resource

Assessment (conducting first level of

land suitability assessment

State Land Mapping and Identification

Public Display of map with

proposed state private land

(Adjudication Area)

Collection of complaints

and submission

to DWG

Selection of state private land suitable

for SLC

Submission to PLUAC/PSLMC and approval on provincial

level

Detailed Land Resource

Assessment (LRA 2)

(second level suitability analysis)

Approval from

MLMUPC and registration

as state private land

Public Awareness

and pre-identification

State Land Identification

Selection of land for SLC


LASED - Soil and Land Suitability assessment model

Topographic Model in 0.5’ grid

Soil properties database

Climate database in 0.5’ grid

Climate change models

Crop meteorological requirements

Climate model

InfrastructureConcessions

Protected areasForest cover

HydrologySlope model

Elevation model Soils types

Crop physical Soil requirements

Description and land use

classification

Crop catalogue of adapted crops

Land with optimal crop suitability

Land with sub- optimal crop suitability

Unsuitable land

Biomass and crop yield calculation model

Precipitation and soil moisture limitations

Agro-climatic decisions: Rainfed or permanent crops

Agro-climatic limitations for rainfed agriculture

Soil and Terrain based degradation model

Land suitability for sustainable agro-ecological production


Soil surveying and mapping situation in rural Cambodia

Existing soil surveys and soil maps: Crocker Soil Map 1963, 1: 1MioVietnamese–French soil map of Cambodian lowlands (1985),1: 500.000Rice soil map (IRRI–CARDIAUSAID, 2000)1:800.000Mekong river commission soil map 1:1Mio.MAFF and int. researchershave done some small scale soil surveys at regional level1: 50.000 -1:100.000


LASED - Soil resource results on province level


LASED - Soil resource results on district and commune level

Soil analysis based FAO – ISRIC auger and profile sample field requirements as well as Soil laboratory analysis of physical and chemical properties. Data reclassification and Soil types categorization following the revised WRB –Legend and SOTER system.


LASED -Precipitation model of Cambodia


LASED 1st draft Soil fertility map


Conclusion - Land dynamics in Rural Cambodia

Cambodian LandApproximately 18.1 Million km²

Cambodian LandApproximately 18.1 Million km²

Protected AreasNational Park

2001

Private Land with Legal Basisand Religious Properties

State Land:Illegally claimed or occupied

Economic Concessions for Forest and Agricultural

Development

Economic Concessions for Development a. Infrastructure

Military concessions

Social Land Concessions(not yet implemented)

Indigenous Land Common Properties (not yet approved)

Fishing concessionsCostal zone areas

Forest land Forest reserve

Forest Concessions Private Land with Legal Basis

and Religious Properties

State Land:Illegally claimed or occupied

Economic Concessions for Forest and Agricultural

Development

Economic Concessions for Development a. Infrastructure

Military concessions

Social Land Concessions (not yet implemented)

Protected AreasNational Park

Indigenous Land Common Properties (not yet approved)

Fishing concessionsCostal zone areas

Forest land Forest reserve

Forest Concessions

2006


DiscussionThe inevitable Land Reform ?

Access to land is not biased in CambodiaMore than 60 % of Cambodian land is declared as state landState land is managed by single line ministries and subsequent administrative bodies, onlyState land is still fairly mapped and inadequately managedLarge scale land concessions are not distributed, transparently20-30% of all land concessions could be for speculative reasonContracted framing on land concessions is abundantSporadic titling of mostly urban land is still dominantAround 10-15 % of poor urban and rural dweller are landlessLASED- Concessions could serve as a first promising attempt towards a more comprehensive land reform to avoid further land disputes and a high percentage of rural landless people.

Thank you for your attention

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Cambodia Land Accessibility And Suitability