Indigenous communities in Cambodia are legally recognized and should thus have been protected by the Land Law and the Forestry Law, entitling them to communal land titles. A number of national and international instruments including the Cambodian Land Law of 2001, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the ILO Convention no. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and the World Bank Safeguard Policy recognize both collective and individual Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

This report presents an overview of national practices of forest land clearance during the 2012-2013 dry season, as a basis for discussing the challenges for FLEGT and REDD+ in Cambodia posed by land conversion and conversion timber. The report maps and describes the geography of forest land allocations in relation to the major forest formations, land concessions, protected areas, the national forest estate, and the reported concession ownership.

This study explores the reasons behind the government’s exclusion of many Phnom Penh urban poor communities (UPCs) from the Systematic Land Registration (SLR) process, and the impact of this on affected households, particularly women and children. The study was conducted in 12 UPCs that had been excluded from the SLR process in six khans where SLR had been completed or was well under way. Data collection methods included interviews with 60 households from excluded UPCs, as well as village chiefs, community representatives, government officials, and NGO members.