Social Land Policy for Sustainable Rural Development in Cambodia

On 1st of July 2009, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen signed the “Declaration of the Royal Government on Land Policy”. According to this document emphasis should be given to State reform, land law, and environmental law with their impacts on the use of non-renewable resources (land, water, and soil). The implementation of the Cambodian social land policy should start with the need to ensure access to land and to sustain rural development and environment for a modern, prosperous Cambodia. The legal framework for sustainable rural development and land policy includes the Constitution from 1993, and the Land Law from 2001, and Sub-Decrees. Land policy can be interpreted as a central element of property policy. Property is protected under the Constitution and the Land Law from 2001. State public property must be interpreted as the property of all Cambodian people, or as social land policy, that serves the purposes of humans living in the country as a public interest, particularly in rural areas. With a land use planning system the Cambodian planning authorities are able to guide and to restrict the use of land property to foster sustainable rural development. Social land policy needs a broader basis in Cambodia than at present State public property with the guarantee for private use, e.g. through land leasing and concessions, is absolutely sufficient, efficient and effective. Social land policy is an interdisciplinary approach of good governance, land and constitutional law, land economy, spatial planning, and gender issues. This policy can also be a state-driven concept for rural areas in other (developing) countries. It must be legally classified as a public interest so that the eternal ground rent, as the economic gain of the land use, is appropriated and then distributed to all Cambodians in equal shares.

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