Some 200 indigenous people protested on Friday to demand authorities to expedite the issuance of communal land title after environmental rangers destroyed the rubber plants in their village farmland in Mondulkiri province.
Several rangers, police and local authorities destroyed over 500 rubber trees in Pech Chreada district’s Bou Sra commune on Thursday, stating that the community planted on state land within the protected area of Sre Pok Nam Lear wildlife sanctuary.
The protesters broke up after the district governor promised to “stop disturbing the villagers” and pay compensation for the destruction of 550 rubber trees belonging to a community member.
Indigenous minority representative of Pulu village, Klaing Phol, said the protest at Pech Chreada district office was to obtain a resolution from environmental officers who destroyed the trees belonging to The Prin family.
“We are protesting to demand the district authority to stop destroying the villagers’ rubber trees,” he said.
“The authority [district governor] has promised [that they will stop] but whether it is true or not, we don’t know,” Phol added.
The farmland where the villagers are cultivating belong to the communities who have submitted a proposal for communal land titles measuring 2,000 hectares in 2020, but the application was still being processed. The government seemed to have ignored the villagers’ application, Phol said.
“If they claim [the land] is a wildlife sanctuary, why is it that companies can develop [the land]? Why is it that other people can clear the land and are not stopped but when villagers cultivate the land, which is our traditional way of life, they say we are [doing something] illegal,” Phol said.
“It is unfair to our Bunong indigenous minority and violates our rights as a minority. They do not show where the boundaries of wildlife sanctuary areas are,” he said. “They have not considered the rights of indigenous people.”
He shared that indigenous people have been cultivating the land since the 1990s, and villagers have lost portions of the land in 2007 and 2008 as the government granted an economic land concession to private companies for rubber plantation.
Pech Chreada district governor Vanna Mab declined to comment, saying that he was busy.
Provincial environment department acting director Din Bunthouen confirmed that the villagers have cultivated land which are protected areas.
“We have compiled documents for the court regarding the land they have requested [for communal land title] but the procedure is not over yet,” he said.
“Yes, that land is located inside the Nam Lear wildlife sanctuary,” Bunthouen said, declining to comment whether the villagers can continue cultivating the land.
Provincial coordinator of rights group Adhoc, Be Vanny, called on the relevant authorities to resolve the issue peacefully rather than use violence and damage villagers’ plants, and speed up the issuance of communal land titles.
“As we know indigenous people depend on farming through rotational agriculture and forest product collection,” he said.
“We hope that the authorities will resolve the issue for villagers based on the legal principle and prioritize people’s interest,” Vanny said.
He said the state should “exclude land”, which are cultivated by local communities, from protected areas, seeing that the government can exclude and grant hundreds of hectares to private companies. “So, why can’t they exclude land for indigenous people?”
