Powers of exclusion : a case study of economic land concessions in Koh Kong, Cambodia

Land tenure has recently emerged as one of the most controversial political issues in Cambodia. This is due to the rampant wave of Economic Land Concessions (ELC) granted by the government that has accelerated in recent years. This paper examines the process of change in land tenure in Cambodia through a case study of the ELC granted to the Koh Kong Sugar Co., Ltd. to cultivate sugar cane in Srae Ambel district, Koh Kong province, and how it continues to affect 220 families who seek justice and compensation for nearly 1,500 hectares of land they no longer have access to that they had previously depended on for their livelihoods. The study uses the conceptual framework of the powers of exclusion to analyze the process of change in land tenure that took place, namely the powers of the market, regulation, force, and legitimation. Ethnographic interviews of people affected by the change in land tenure were conducted to collect data from which to measure the different powers at play. The research determined that the powers of exclusion played an important role in the process of the change in land tenure and that these powers are deeply intertwined. Moreover, the research found that depending on the scale at which the process is examined, one power may be more predominant than the others. The study also discovered that access to information plays a critical role in the process of change in land tenure and that it can also influence exclusion from land just as the other powers. In the case study Cambodia’s tumultuous history, weak rule of law and the lure to profit in a large-scale agro-industrial scheme converge to drive the change in land tenure. Despite this, counter-veiling powers were applied by NGOs and the community to challenge exclusion from land through the court in Cambodia, Thailand’s National Human Rights Committee, and other international accountability mechanisms.