NGOs cooperate to influence the policies and practices of governments, donors, investors and relevant stakeholders to ensure that the rights and need of indigenous people to land and natural resources is recognized, and that the government and donors are supportive of the process.

The Indigenous Minorities Rights (IMR) Project commenced in September 2004 and has significantly contributed to the development of indigenous peoples’ networks and their representation at the national and international levels, has coordinated advocacy activities of NGOs working on indigenous peoples issues and increased indigenous peoples’ awareness of their rights. Since 2003, a number of NGOs working with indigenous peoples, particularly in relation to land and forest issues began meeting as an informal working group. They realised the need for further support and integration on advocacy initiatives and therefore approached NGO Forum to take on the role of co-coordinating and supporting those organizations and, in particular, facilitate the development of a na-tional network of indigenous peoples.

Between 2004 and 2008, the project has focused on a number of key activities. A series of workshops with indigenous community representatives were held in selected provinces in collaboration with other NGOs working with indigenous issues, which culminated in a National Indigenous Peoples’ Forum, held in September 2004. This forum initiated the idea of formation of an informal network of indigenous community leaders was formed, called the Indigenous Rights Active Members (IRAM), which began working together in 2005. Partially due to their facilitation by the IMR Project, IRAM have become a nationally and internationally recognised group who advocate on behalf of Cambodia’s Indigenous Peoples. In 2007 they helped to host the Asia Caucus meeting of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) and have attended the 2007 and 2008 UNPFII itself in New York with assistance from NGO Forum staff. 2007 also saw IRAM create a Committee of seven selected members which lead the coordination of their activities.

The National Indigenous Peoples Forum is now an annual event, co-organised between the IMR Project, the IRAM group and members of the Indigenous Peoples NGO (IPN) Network. Additionally, the IMR Project raises awareness of indigenous issues nationally and internationally through a range of activities such as: supporting the Ministry of Rural Development’s annual celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day (8th August); collaborating to develop annual reports on issues concerning indigenous peoples for the International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs, the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact Foundation, the UNPFII and monitoring the implementation on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The IMR Project coordinates the NGO submission to the CDCF and GDCC Meetings which monitor the progress made by the Government towards indicators relating to indigenous peoples land rights. During 2007 and 2008, the project lead the coordination of public consultations with indigenous community representatives on draft legislation for indigenous peoples communal land title. Finally, through the IPN Network, the project coordinates and supports advocacy activities by NGO members and indigenous communities which have: helped secure rights to land and natural resources; strengthened indigenous peoples’ voice at local, provincial, national and international levels; and improved laws, policies and government practices affecting the lives of in-digenous people.

Indigenous minority peoples in Cambodia have their ancestral domains in 15 provinces: Kratie, Kampong Cham, Banteay Meanchey, Oudar Meanchey, Siem Reap, Battambang, Mondolkiri, Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, Preah Vihear, Kompong Thom, Koh Kong, Pursat, Kompong Speu and Sihanoukville. They are estimated to constitute 190,000 people, equivalent to 1.4% of the total population and have traditionally managed nearly 4 millions hectares of remote evergreen and dry deciduous forests. The long-term well being of indigenous cultures is strongly linked to their land use systems and access to forest resources. Historically, indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia have often been marginalised and sadly, due to inequitable development processes and poor governance, Cambodia’s recent economic growth has led to significant loss of land and access to natural resources for indigenous communities while bringing them only very limited benefits. The cause of this destruction of sustainable indigenous livelihoods is complex. It is partially due to the continued lack of legal framework to provide indigenous peoples with land title, an additional driver is the lack of enforcement of the legislation in place to protect indigenous land and natural resource rights and ongoing legal impunity of powerful individuals and companies who illegally obtain land eligible for communal land title. A further reason is the lack opportunities for indigenous people to represent their concerns to decision-makers and these problems are escalating further due to breakdown of social capital. National level policies such as the National Strategic Development Plan and the Joint-Monitoring Indicators selected by the Government and Donors to measure progress annually all highlight the importance of ensuring sustainable development through securing tenure of indigenous groups. However, the reality is very different, as a UN study concluded “the alienation of indigenous land through the granting of ELCs and other concessions is undermining the ability of indigenous communities to register their collective ownership of traditional lands, and enforce their rights to land under the Land Law. In the face of continuing alienation of landing indigenous areas there is increasing concern that little land will remain available for registration once the framework …. is finalized’ During reflection with members of the IPN Network, the following key problem areas were selected as priorities during the 2010-2011 Action Plan:

Indigenous communities are traditionally held together by institutions governed by a strong common identity, language and culture; legitimate leadership by elders; and adherence to customary laws. The negative impact of development and alienation from land and natural resources is weakening these traditional structures, which in turn lead to community break-down such as individuals selling land to outsiders, migration to urban areas, loss of traditional cultures and identity. This is a fundamental problem which is affecting indigenous peoples across Cambodia and making indigenous communities more vulnerable and les able to protect themselves from external threats such as land grabbing and corruption. This problem is caused by and further contributes all the following other problems listed below.

One cause of this problem is that indigenous groups lack knowledge about their rights to land and natural resources and the policy frameworks supporting them, and have a relatively low capacity to ensure that these frameworks are upheld by relevant duty bearers. Secondly, many active indigenous leaders are prevented from taking representational roles within government institutions because they lack the language fluency in Khmer. Thirdly, the government authorities responsible for protecting these rights and ensuring equitable representation do not believe that indigenous communities have the capacity to manage natural resources or take up positions within administrative structures.

The 2001 Land Law, the 2002 Forestry Law and other legislation such as the Cambodian Constitution provides for indigenous communities to gain title to their land in the form of collective titles and maintain user rights to traditionally owned forest resources. However, these structures are not adequately protecting or promoting their rights, in three specific areas:

Since 2006, the Cambodian Government has begun to grant large areas of land once occupied and belonging to indigenous peoples and concessions for agro-industrial plantations and mining. Around one million hectares of land has been formally granted as ELCs by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and the activities of government agencies in relation to these commercial arrangements is lacks transparency or accountability. However, reports from indigenous communities indicate that a much larger area of land is currently illegally occupied by concessions which are having a devastating impact on traditional agriculture, livestock grazing areas, access to roads and water sources and livelihood security. In addition, concessions have been granted on top of burial and spirit forest areas. These concessions are illegal because they do not comply with existing national laws, for example, affected communities are not consulted during the planning phase, information is not posted publicly for review and the concession areas are often larger than the maximum limit.

On cases relating to ELCs, the project will work in partnership with the Forest Livelihoods and Plantations Project. Although, the project does not have the capacity to work directly on Mining Concessions, information gathering and monitoring activities will be undertaken as appropriate. Additionally, the project will work with the “Impacts of Extractive Industries” civil society Working Group being established, such as raising specific mining cases for advocacy, based on the requests from the FL&P Network members