IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

Research article
erdSocial Land Policy for Sustainable Rural Development in
Cambodia
FABIAN THIEL
Faculty of Land Management and Land Administration,
Royal University of Agriculture, Cambodia
Email: fabian.thiel@cimonline.deReceived 6 January 2010

Accepted 5 March 2010

Abstract On 1st of July 2009, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen signed the“Declaration of the Royal Government on Land Policy”. According to this documentemphasis should be given to State reform, land law, and environmental law with theirimpacts on the use of non-renewable resources (land, water, and soil). The implementationof the Cambodian social land policy should start with the need to ensure access to land andto sustain rural development and environment for a modern, prosperous Cambodia. The
legal framework for sustainable rural development and land policy includes theConstitution from 1993, and the Land Law from 2001, and Sub-Decrees. Land policy canbe interpreted as a central element of property policy. Property is protected under theConstitution and the Land Law from 2001. State public property must be interpreted as theproperty of all Cambodian people, or as social land policy, that serves the purposes ofhumans living in the country as a public interest, particularly in rural areas. With a land
use planning system the Cambodian planning authorities are able to guide and to restrict
the use of land property to foster sustainable rural development. Social land policy needs abroader basis in Cambodia than at present State public property with the guarantee forprivate use, e.g. through land leasing and concessions, is absolutely sufficient, efficientand effective. Social land policy is an interdisciplinary approach of good governance, landand constitutional law, land economy, spatial planning, and gender issues. This policy canalso be a state-driven concept for rural areas in other (developing) countries. It must be
legally classified as a public interest so that the eternal ground rent, as the economic gainof the land use, is appropriated and then distributed to all Cambodians in equal shares.
Keywords: Social land policy, sustainable rural development, land law, Cambodia

INTRODUCTION
On 1st of July 2009, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen signed the “Declaration of the Royal
Government on Land Policy”. According to this document emphasis should be given to State
reform, land law, and environmental law with their impacts on the use of non-renewable resources(land, water, and soil). Moreover the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) “attaches priority to
granting land ownership rights to poor households and vulnerable groups for housing, farming andsmall businesses” and wants to “ensure land use efficiency”. In 2009 Cambodia still experienced ahigh rural poverty rate, high land concentration and “anarchy in illegal land possession, illegal
claim of state land and protected areas as privately owned and unlawful logging” (RGC, 2008). A
national goal has been established in order to solve these problems, especially rural poverty (World
Bank, 2007). This goal aims to alleviate poverty by ensuring food security, equitable economic andsocial development, fair distribution of land and national resources, secure housing rights andenvironmental protection.
Development under the “new rural paradigm” depends on government activities at all levels
and including local stakeholders (OECD, 2006). Hence rural development is a cornerstone of social
land policy and good land governance. The “rule of law” can be interpreted as a central element ofland policy and environmental governance issues for water, forests and land (Deininger, 2003).
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Land Law, Planning Law, Property Law and the Constitution are crucial for the appropriate use ofnatural resources in Cambodia. The Land Law of Cambodia from 2001 was expected to be
implemented to ensure an equitable and efficient system of land management. This includes
provisions for fair land distribution, land tenure security, eradication of illegal settlements andencroachment, eradicating land grabbing, and the control of ownership concentration for
speculative purposes. At present it is not clear if the Land Law or the planning instruments, letalone other policy documents and regulations, will be able to fulfill all of these expectations. This
article outlines the necessities for implementing a social land policy for rural development, a spatialplanning system, and socio-ecologic and environmentally-sound land policy in Cambodia. This
process has started from “point zero” because of the lack of the State’s awareness of urban andrural land inventories.
METHODOLOGY: SOCIAL LAND POLICY AND THE “RULE OF LAW”
Social land policy in Cambodia should try to answer the following core questions (Graefen andBaldi, 2009): what kind of arable land and how much of that should be allocated (land reform)?
Which land uses are envisaged? Are the beneficiaries of the State’s interventions in land markets
landless households or also land-poor people? Approximately 80 % of Cambodian territory consistsof State property (World Bank, 2008). The management of public land is of crucial importance forrural development, but implementation faces numerous problems. These include the often
confusing difference between State public land (Art. 17 Land Law) and State private land (Art. 14
and Art. 15 Land Law), unclear boundaries in urban and rural areas, a weak rule of law, and theunfinished recovery of administrative documents for titling, mapping, properties, and taxation (forland value and land property).
The methodology of this paper follows the “rule of law”: the State is always the main actor in
the land sector and has to guarantee State public property which cannot be transformed into private
property. State land management needs to be broadened in Cambodia within its Constitution, theLand Law, and Sub-Decrees. One of the main purposes of public-oriented and constitutionallyjustified land management is that it ensures private land access for all Cambodian people (Suárez etal., 2009). Private land use under the conditions of tenure security is more efficient than State landuse, but that does not per se require the designation of private property. State public property with aguarantee for private land use is absolutely sufficient, efficient, effective, and sustainable. State
public or State private land cannot be owned by private people, except with a legal document suchas a Sub-Decree or registration procedure.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Common property and cooperatives for rural development
Land use models with the concept of common property resources (CPR) or community-based
natural resource management (CBNRM) with regulations, participation and decentralization
strategies for avoiding a land-free-for-all-mentality are underdeveloped in Cambodia (CBNRM,
2009; Markussen, 2008). Land management and socio-ecological land policy (RGC, 2009b) alsoneed a sound land use planning system which is completely missing (Thiel, 2009), apart from somepilot planning at regional and communal level. An innovative land use alternative might include
agricultural associations and service/producer cooperatives or group rights under control ofwomen’s groups on common property resources (land, forest, water) (Ostrom, 1990). These are
additional instruments which can secure gender-equal land rights. Cooperatives need to be based on
key principles such as strictly voluntary membership and exit options, autonomy and independence
from government activities, self-organization, and governance, including autonomous decisions
about objectives, strategies, and management (Kirk, 2004).
Cooperatives may be suitable for landless and land-poor female-headed households forresidential, rural and agricultural community empowerment. They encourage self-help groups,© ISERD

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house construction and business communities, income generation for women and agriculture foodprocessing. Agricultural extension services can be a basis for food security and poverty reduction
in Cambodia since 80 % of the population lives in rural areas (World Bank, 2007). Moreover,cooperatives and associations can provide access to micro-credit institutions and build up
credit/loan/mortgage communities including value chain business approaches.
Spatial planning for rural development
Although the Cambodian Constitution states that “the State shall protect the environment and thebalance of natural resources and establish a precise plan for the management of land” (Art. 59
Constitutional Law) a coherent, hierarchic spatial planning/land use system for urban and rural
areas is still under-developed. Ideally rural development in Cambodia would be based on acomprehensive spatial planning system which would develop, organize, and protect the entire rural
territory. Legal protection would be achieved with integrative and strategic territorial planning, andthe harmonization of regionally - and locally - significant instruments and measures. These include
Commune Land Use Planning (CLUP), Participatory Land Use Planning (PLUP) and Initial StateLand Use Plan (I-SLUP), which are part of the land allocation process for social and economic
rural development (LASED) project in three Cambodian provinces.
Sufficient compliance with the land use planning objectives would be achieved. Regionallysignificant plans and measures would be harmonized and conducted with comprehensive
development concepts while satisfying the requirements of the current land use planning policy.
Rural development and land management are cornerstones within Cambodian policy papers aiming
at food security, poverty reduction, and agricultural extension, such as the Rectangular Strategy(RGC, 2008). Rural and infrastructural developments that ensure cultural preservation andcommunity empowerment such as village renewal can be very costly and time-consuming toundertake. This depends on cooperation with land owners who have to pay for the supply of
infrastructure systems. Hence, the Cambodian municipalities should be entitled to some limited
value capture. To ensure the development of local public transportation and communication
infrastructure (energy supply, public health services, sanitation and water supply) in the context ofvillage renewal and rural development, land owners should be required to bear some of theseinfrastructure costs. Moreover development in rural areas depends on the poly-rationalities andproperties of the involved land owners. These poly-rationalities can be divided into individualist
bias (private property), egalitarian bias (common property) and hierarchist bias (rearranged land
use rights) (Davy, 2009). Therefore rural development needs a property steering component tointegrate these rationalities of land owners affected by rural development planning instruments andtheir modules. However, even the best plans are useless when they cannot be implemented. In somecases plans are blocked by private land owners who do not accept the planning determinations fortheir plots and the restrictions on their private property. Instead these private land owners hope toincrease and appropriate the ground rent (or “rent seeking”).
This interlocking set of land use plans on a national, provincial, district and communal level isnecessary to avoid urbanization, urban sprawl, hoarding of underused land, the destruction of fertile
farm land and, with growing importance, to gain comprehensive, systematic and transparent
information for the assessment (screening and monitoring) of large scale foreign direct investments(FDI) in agriculture, hydropower and mining. Land use plans should protect land that has been
designated for a special purpose, such as the protection of a landscape for biodiversity andagricultural uses, or to prevent development of an open space or fertile land area for other uses (e. g.
conversion of farmland which reduces food security).
Public property for rural development
Land use regulations must satisfy the public interest. The term “public interest” should be
integrated into Art. 58 of Cambodian Constitutional Law to clarify that State public property is ofessential public interest. Avoiding land speculation and combating illegal claims for State land
must be a constitutionally-demanded public interest and hence a cornerstone of State land
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management. Social housing and any sustainable use of forests, fisheries, and other resources
should also clearly be defined as public interests of the Cambodian State. The problem of (private)
encroachment on State (public) land raises the question whether there is enough public, andpolitical, awareness of the need for socially-balanced land distribution. Thus the State has a
responsibility to provide “secure land rights for all” (UN-Habitat/GLTN, 2008) and social
citizenship in Cambodia.
However, social land policy shows insufficient results in implementation, in spite ofincreasing capacities and political commitment from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban
Planning and Construction (MLMUPC). At present, there is a demand for mapping in the context
of tenure security for Cambodia’s indigenous communities since land disputes and “land grabbing”
by the rich and the powerful are rising in the face of an “elite capture of law” (Menzel, 2008).
Practices of public administration, which are not foreseen by law, fill the gaps between traditionaland modern concepts of law, and land disputes are decided in the interest of private individuals or
wealthy urban investors (Adler et al., 2006).
Ground rent-seeking, speculation, a massive competition for land through Economic Land
Concessions (ELC) and FDIs are causing deforestation, a decreased amount of land available,latent conflicts, anarchic encroachment, and both legal and illegal land transactions. These
processes are faster and seem more rational to some members of indigenous communities thanmapping, registering of collective title, and legislation processes for indigenous land rights.
Individualist rationalities of the indigenous people in remote areas towards short-term profit, inparticular for cash needed for health treatment, motorcycles, education and household consumption,from the land resource are stronger than the long-term management and maintaining of community
ownership for scarce natural resources.
Land leasing for rural development
Leasehold tenure on land can reduce transaction costs for access to agricultural and residential landsince it is the market mechanism that offers the greatest short-term potential for increasing theaccess of the poor to land (Bruce et al., 2006). Private land use (land rights and land tenure) does
not have to be linked to private property. Private-property-oriented western nations have effectively
created a situation in which private property rights have negative consequences for land use
planning, land allocation, and land distribution because of the incremental economic value and rentof the land. Private property rights are, to some extent, obstacles for a sustainable land use planningpolicy and for a social land law. The “control of ownership concentration for speculative purpose”(one of the clear political aims of the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) from 20062010 (RGC, 2005)) would not be necessary if there were no exclusive private property rights for
non-renewable natural resources such as land, soils and other assets.
Cambodia can achieve a land-use system similar to the land leasehold tenure regulations inmany modern states. In addition, the Cambodian state could partly appropriate the economic
ground rent through taxes such as income tax, unused land tax and other tax forms that have to beconstitutional before implementation. In other words land use planning by the State would become
neutral when private property ownership of land would be replaced by public land leasing. All
citizens should have the same chance to access land and its products via leasehold rights andauctions of the private land use rights. But such an innovative land allocation and distribution
system causes higher rents, land values and thus higher leasehold fees if an adjustment to groundrents is made. A revolving (local) land fund can solve this problem by pooling the ground rents
paid and then redistributing these rents in equal shares to the people (Löhr, 2009). A leasehold
tenure and distributed ground rents system can prevent tenure insecurity for indigenous rural landowners and for communes. Instead, the Land Administration Sub Sector Program (LA-SSP) in
Cambodia focuses on systematic land registration rather than registering time-restricted landleasing rights to create private ownership and tenure security. Leasehold tenure can reducetransaction costs for access to agricultural land. Leasehold tenure regulations that already exist in
the Cambodian Land Law 2001 (Art. 106-113; Rendall, 2003) are excellent land tenure alternatives
to private property rights and absolutely equivalent to secure land tenure rights. The granted land
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use rights have to be paid for by users because of the economic potential. The lower the income perhousehold, the lower the cost of the lease and the transaction costs for this household. In a soundpublic land management system land hoarding for speculative purposes and “rent seeking” would
no longer exist. Moreover leasehold tenure can avoid the lack of tenure security for indigenous land
rights and for rural communes. It can help register land to women who primarily tend to achieve
secure land use rights for their families to undertake subsistence farming or smallholder businesses.
However, major challenges remain in ensuring effective land ownership security for farmers andequality in land access for marginal groups like women, the young and the poor. This is valid forland policy not only in Cambodia but also for other developing countries.
CONCLUSION
Based on the “Declaration of the Royal Government on Land Policy” from 2009, the Cambodian
legislator has a unique opportunity to elucidate and improve social land policy throughout thewhole territory, in particular for rural areas where 80 % of the population lives. Therefore, land
policy should include:· Different property forms and tenure securities for land beyond the private property rights
solution for the use of non-renewable natural resources and any immovable property;· Effective and efficient State land management with non-transferable public property;· Leasehold tenure contracts, eventually combined with innovative land taxation models(redistribution of the ground rent for the benefit of the people as an “add up”);· Indigenous, customary and other informal land use rights, eventually combined with leasehold
rights, in particular for agriculture land;· Rural development and village renewal as essential elements of land use planning policy;· Property steering function of the spatial/land use planning policy (property policy) and· Reduced transaction costs for the access to arable land.
Social land policy, State land management and spatial/land use planning policy needframework arrangements guaranteed by the institutions responsible for land use development in
Cambodia. The Council of Ministers, national ministries, the legislature, the Council for Land
Policy, the institutions of the provinces, districts, municipalities and the civil sector must consider
these planning and property issues for the Cambodian people. Different institutions for the
management of the non-renewable resource land have to be built up in the future.
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