Michael Kirk (1996):
The Dynamics of Land Tenure and Land Management in Cambodia:

5. Recommendations for Development Cooperation

35. Top political officials of the Council of Ministers convey the strong will to break down parallel, contradictory structures in the resource and land tenure related legislation, to concentrate the direct control over the process of land registration at the highest level, and to aim for better coordination than in the past with other Ministries. The political expectations made upon the GTZ Project are accordingly high. In the future it will scarcely be able to break away from this political context; rather more it will make use of the chance of making contributions to the reforms of the legislation and to be able to offer service functions for other set ups above and beyond the core task of registration. (cf. Result 5).

36. It is not the primary task of the project to be in overall charge of the process of resource, contract and administrative legislation in Cambodia; on the other hand, the success of the project can be endangered without this framework. It is not for nothing that the World Bank makes massive influence over the acceleration of the process of legislation in the neighboring Laos PDR, a prerequisite for putting into effect the registration of land successfully and long-term. But the joining of the Land Titles Department to the Council of Ministers also creates new potentials in Cambodia, parallel to the technical setting up of the registration system, for influencing and altering the political framework conditions (cf. also Result 4):

37. The greatest possible transparency over the work in progress of the project and an offensive information policy is desirable since the Land Titling Department in the past had the reputation of isolating itself, having a technocratic manner and even a "bunker mentality". The impulse of the young project will be motivatingly but also critically watched.

38. It is necessary to demonstrate the technical, administrative, legal, planning and inter-ministerial possibilities of land registration and a cadastre system to the political decision makers: there is a need to compare the French system, the Torrens and German "Grundbuch" models, and to estimate the future potential as basic information data, its relevance for land use and sector planning, etc. (cf. activity 2.2). This could be carried out in the form of expert panels or of workshops, possibly in cooperation with the German Foundation for International Development (DSE). The GTZ would have the chance of building up its own profile in the field of political counseling, besides the massive influence through French and Anglo-American legal and economic advisors in the Council of Ministers.

39. The problems of implementation on the practical side of allocating titles must be pointed out to the Council and made emphatically clear, be they based in contradictory or lacking legislation. Concrete suggestions for the standardization or simplification of existing legislation should also be presented. Likewise, problems and blockages in the cooperation with other administrative units, with international donors or private investors ought to be demonstrated along with suggestions for solutions.

40. It must be tested in general how far the project wants to be involved in training programmes for judges, restricted to the District and Province levels, in order to a) secure the dissemination of relevant land legislation, and b) to make a mid-term contribution to increasing legal security (passing on responsibility in conflicts from the Administration to a (possibly) independent judiciary). Decisions about commitment in this area is decidedly dependent on the speed of the reform of land legislation.

41. In addition, the project should test how far it can make, in parallel or alternatively, a contribution at the local level to maintaining autochthonous, customary rights for drawing up contracts for land transfer, the witnessing of land rights, and the allocation of land. This is, however, only possible if the Central State at least tolerates these rights. The same is true for the effects of the allocation of titles on the women's rights to land.

42. There are large gaps in the knowledge about land questions at the local level in this early stage. Typical causes, the course and the consequences of land conflicts in towns and the three provinces in which the project will be primarily operating should be made transparently clear for the participants in the "Land Titling Project". They are additionally helpful to back-up the project politically.

43. Analysis of the reasons for and the course of typical land conflicts in towns. Between 1989 and 1994, massive misuse took place in the allocation of titles: land titles were handed out without being registered in the cadastre; the one and the same piece of land was allocated many times over. This can scarcely have been possible without corruption in State offices.

44. In the villages there is evidence of land conflicts being based in economic differentiation after 1989 when well-to-do families took advantage of the poverty and indebtedness of poor households in order to buy land. Development projects take advantage of the legal vacuum and make use of plots without extensively checking the claims of people with potential rights to the land. The dismantling of the production cooperatives ("solidarity groups") in the villages and the reallocation of land to families has brought considerable tension and accusations with it. The allocation of land to returning refugee families brings attendant distribution problems; the landlessness of young families is increasing. There is a great shortage of land with new areas of conflict between longer settled families and new settlers from refugee villages.

45. Typical court cases referring to land questions in the capital ought to be analyzed. Here, informal contact ought to be made to lawyers (e.g. Dirksen, Flipse, Le & Partner and others. It has been shown in Laos that lawyers have a personal interest in such coalitions meaning that this can be a cost-effective form of cooperation.)

46. The identified tasks ought not to be carried out by collaborators of the "Land Titling Department", but rather by external Cambodian consultants with field experience: the analysis of written material (court files, administrative procedures) should be carried out by legally and administratively trained persons; sociologists or anthropologists should deal the situation of the villages; all of them should demonstrate exemplary cases making use of case studies (expert interview, group discussions, intensive interviews).

47. Further, the already existing lists of all laws and ordinances, etc. which could be useful for the project ought to be updated. A private lawyer could do this as a local consultant.

48. Questions of the possibility of increasing fees for the partial self-financing of cadastral work (Activity 1.10.) ought to be tested in close cooperation with the municipal cadastre office which were obviously already able to gather the relevant information.

49. A stronger dovetailing of land legislation and land use or regional planning is required at both the national and Province levels. There is a considerable deficit of information amongst those who are political responsible as to how far a modern cadastre can also take over important functions as a data bank for land use planning. The political leadership of the Ministry for the Environment complained greatly about the current lack of coordination in resource legislation and also especially in the work of the "Land Titling Department" in the past for the setting up of a consistent legal framework in which legislation for agricultural and pasture land, forests and water resources are coordinated under environmental points of view. The potential of the cadastre system for also delivering elementary information for planning and land use has been emphasized here again and again.

50. In as far as it is desired and supported by the Council of Ministers, coordination and information transfer should be sounded out as a first step through the Land Titling Department with the resulting set ups (cf. Activities 2.3. and 5.25.4.):

51. With the Ministry of the Environment:

Land tenure legislation as part of the environmental legislation and a model for legislation for forest and water resources which do not yet exist,

The creation of a system of incentives (land taxes) for the sustainable use of land in the new land legislation, and for land administrative (levying through already existing cadastre offices or the setting up of a new tax administration),

Clarification of property rights regimes as well as of access and utilization, for example, of biodiverstiy zones, protected areas (State property, allocation as common property to local user groups, responsibilities of the administration, who takes care of the files?),

52. With the Ministry of Rural Development:

Department for Administration, Finance and Planning: questions of registration in development programmes and projects in various provinces,

Application of the cadastre in land use planning,

Department of Community Development: testing how far its instruments, methods and staff can be useful in the dissemination of information about land registration to village populations.

53. With the National Mekong Committee:

common utilization of map material (already introduced)

common utilization and extension of data information systems.

54. With the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the Ministry of Fishery, Wildlife etc.

Registration and responsibility for forests, land along river paths, in flood areas, etc.

55. Cooperation with a selected Province Administration as a pilot zone, e.g. Khanda Province:

Land use planning and urban planning,

dealing with flooded areas.

56. This cooperation could be both informally organized as well as accompanied by round table discussions with a follow-up for checking the success and modification of the cooperation. This could be worked out by the GTZ alone or in cooperation with DSE. Only through this cooperation the requirements of the most important users - who not only include private investors but also government agencies- to the cadastre will be clarified (Activity 1.2.), and can be integrated into future work.