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Library formalization fix? Land titling, land concessions and the politics of spatial transparency in Cambodia

formalization fix? Land titling, land concessions and the politics of spatial transparency in Cambodia

formalization fix? Land titling, land concessions and the politics of spatial transparency in Cambodia

Resource information

Date of publication
december 2015
Resource Language
ISBN / Resource ID
AGRIS:US201600001868
Pages
903-928

In a widely read paper, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, World Bank and others propose systematic property rights formalization as a key step in addressing the problems of irresponsible agricultural investment. This paper examines the case of Cambodia, one of a number of countries where systematic land titling and large-scale land concessions have proceeded in parallel in recent years. Cambodia's experience exemplifies the challenges of the ‘formalization fix’ – the proposition that property formalization constitutes a preferable front-line defense against land grabbing – and highlights formalization's uneven geography as an issue that has yet to generate adequate discussion internationally. Three dimensions of Cambodia's less-than-successful formalization fix efforts stand out: (1) the spatial separation of systematic land titling and agribusiness concessions that emerged during the 2000s and has only recently begun to be addressed; (2) the deployment of property formalization as a means of land grabbing, especially when applied selectively and unevenly; and (3) the political arena of efforts to legitimize ‘state land’. The paper questions the formalization fix as a policy solution, and argues for both greater spatial transparency in property formalization efforts throughout the global South, and greater attention to the problem of unmapped state land in general.

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Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s)

Dwyer, Michael B.

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Geographical focus