(video) Special statement by Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet. on the “Forest Protection Land Grant for Sustainable Development” program [Unofficial Translation]
Venerable Buddhist Monks,
My deeply respected and beloved fellow countrymen,
Today, I am paying homage to the venerable Buddhist monks and inform all my fellow countrymen about the launch of the “Forest Protection Land Grant for Sustainable Development” program, which I announced in a special statement on the one-year achievements of the 7th legislative term Royal Government on August 22, 2024.
This program has three main objectives – (1) to provide land to poor Cambodians who do not have real land, (2) to participate in preventing the encroachment of state land into private ownership, and (3) promote citizen participation in forest protection and conservation.
I would take this opportunity to briefly remind all my compatriots of the history of resolving private land ownership for the people (by the government). Decades of war in the past have destroyed not only the lives of millions of innocent Cambodians, but also physical and social infrastructure such as roads, schools, hospitals, human resources and private property, especially private land ownership, which was completely abolished during the genocidal Pol Pot regime.
After January 7, 1979, under the correct leadership of the Cambodian People’s Party, the government first allocated agricultural land to citizens in 1985 and (later) recognized private ownership of residential land in 1989. In addition, the Royal Government has also put in place policies and provided land to citizens through various phased programs, which includes:
- Firstly, the land grant program for people repatriated from the Cambodian-Thai border in 1991 to 1993;
- Secondly, the land grant program for former Khmer Rouge forces who were reunified in 1998;
- Thirdly, the state land grant program for people under the implementation of Order 01, or what we call Order 01 in 2012, by which, approximately 640,000 parcels of land, equivalent to 1.2 million hectares, were registered and provided with titles; and
- Fourthly, the state land grant program through the social land concession program for former armed forces and their families, families of the army and national police along the border, as well as poor civilians in general, since 2013, which has allocated a total of approximately 1.4 million hectares of land for a total of nearly 490,000 families and built approximately 8,100 houses.
To continue this historic and necessary task, the Royal Government of the 7th legislative term of the National Assembly will continue to focus on improving the land tenure rights of citizens by promoting land measurement, land registration, and issuing title deeds to citizens, as well as continuing to provide social land concessions to former armed forces and families of soldiers and national police along the border, and poor citizens.
In addition to land shortages, issues related to the state land encroachment for private ownership and the destruction of natural resources are also challenges that the Royal Government must take continuous measures to prevent them from happening. In this sense, the introduction of a program to provide forest protection land for joint sustainable development will not only increase the power of land settlement for poor Cambodians who really do not have land, but also help prevent the encroachment of state land into private ownership and promote citizen participation in forest protection and conservation.
Through this program, Cambodian citizens who are truly landless will be given land by the state with assistance provided in organizing then into villages, and Cambodian citizens who will live there will be able to organize themselves into communities to help protect the land and forests around the communities they live in. We can say that this is a strategy that kills two birds with one stone – firstly, providing land to Cambodian citizens who are truly landless, and secondly, Cambodian citizens will be able to directly participate in protecting the land and forests around the communities they live in.
To successfully implement this program, the Royal Government has established a National Commission to lead the implementation of the “Forest Protection Land Grant for Sustainable Development” program, abbreviated as P. K. A., with a secretariat as its headquarters. Regarding the procedures, forms, places to apply, and qualifications to obtain land, the secretariat will begin to notify in due course and can begin accepting applications from citizens from February 2025 onwards.
Revered Buddhist monks
Dear compatriots
I hope that all compatriots will support and join the Royal Government in implementing this program successfully and effectively. On behalf of the Royal Government of the 7th legislative term of the National Assembly, I would like to express my determination once again to serve the nation, the motherland, and the people to the best of my ability. Finally, I would like to offer my blessings to all the monks and wish all my fellow countrymen to be happy and may they be blessed with the Buddha’s blessings and the five blessings. Thank you.