Concession boundaries, road, and technical markers from a government map

The government approved a new Economic Land Concession (ELC) in March 2022, - nearly a decade after the prime minister signed a moratorium on new ELCs - leading to an ongoing land conflict in Stung Treng province.

It is the first known ELC granted since 2014, when the government approved several ELCs it said had been submitted prior to the May 2012 moratorium.

Dozens of families have already been impacted by the construction of a road leading to the ELC. The lack of transparency around the exact size and location of the concession has led local authorities to estimate that up to 400 families could eventually be affected across Borei O Svay Seanchey, Siem Pang, and Sesan districts in the province’s northeast.

“The government should provide more information on what appears to be a reversal of the moratorium on new ELCs,” said Naly Pilorge, outreach director of LICADHO. “The moratorium followed years of well-documented land conflicts and dispossession emerging from these large-scale leases, and this new conflict shows that the same issues with ELCs remain.”

A Council of Ministers letter dated 11 March 2022 orders the transfer of 9,788 hectares of land in Stung Treng province to Horizon Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. The letter, signed by secretary of state Bin Bunchhat, also gives Horizon the right to transfer that land to T.S.M.W Co., Ltd., and directs the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) to begin the process of converting the land’s legal status to create an ELC with a 50-year lease.

Subsequent documents from MAFF, signed by then-Minister Veng Sakhon and dated 17 March, refer to an ELC and put its size at 5,602 hectares. A letter from the Forestry Administration in July 2022 also confirms the ELC. A letter from the Ministry of Environment (MoE) issued in September 2022 orders an assessment of the 5,602 hectares, which wholly overlaps with an MoE-managed biodiversity corridor, although the document does not mention an ELC.

All ELCs legally require social and environmental impact assessments prior to operation.

Villagers in the area told LICADHO that no information was given to them prior to T.S.M.W beginning work in the area. On 9 November 2022, villagers from Y Bou village, O Svay commune, Borei O Svay Seanchey district in Stung Treng mobilised to prevent the company from building a 50-meter-wide road leading to the concession, as the work was destroying their farmland and agricultural trees. Villagers have since mobilised to protect the land on five other occasions, with the latest gathering occurring on 4 January 2023.

A petition drafted by villagers in December identified 64 families suffering from destruction of farmland and called for a resolution to the conflict and compensation for the damaged property.

Horizon Agriculture Development was previously granted an ELC in Kratie province in 2010, embroiling them in a land conflict with hundreds of families there. Authorities said in 2014 that the ELC was revoked after the company had failed to cultivate the land.

“We call on the government to provide more information on its policy surrounding new ELCs, and to resolve this ongoing conflict peacefully and fairly,” said Naly Pilorge.

For more information, please contact:
▪ Am Sam Ath, Operations Director of LICADHO, on Signal at (+855) 10 327 770 (Khmer)
▪ Naly Pilorge, Outreach Director of LICADHO, on Signal at (+855) 12 214 454 (English)

PDF: Download full statement in English - Download full statement in Khmer
MP3: Listen to audio version in Khmer