The United Nations marks 2022 as this year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples under the theme “The Role of Indigenous Women in the Preservation and Transmission of Traditional Knowledge.” This theme recognizes how important and central women are in the longevity and survival of indigenous communities. Indigenous people living in Cambodia are 250,000 to 400,000 (51% of women), accounting for 2-3% of the Cambodian population. More than 155 indigenous communities have received official recognition from the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD).
On 09 August 2022, Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Alliance (CIPA), Cambodia Indigenous Women Association (CIWA), Cambodia Indigenous Youth Association (CIYA), Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Organization (CIPO), Highlanders Association Ratanakiri, Converse Indigenous Peoples Languages Organization (CIPL), Organization for the Promotion of Kui Culture (OPKC), Indigenous People for Agriculture Development in Cambodia (IADC), Indigenous Rights Active Members (IRAM), and MIPN, in collaborating with Klahaan, Women Peace Makers, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), and Open Development Cambodia (ODC) with the supports from United Nations Human Rights, VOICE, Diakonia, USAID, and FHI 360 celebrated the 18th International Day of the World’s Indigenous People in Cambodia. A total of 138 participants (approximately 90 females) joined the event.
The indigenous groups opened the celebration with the indigenous traditional prayer as well as displayed their traditional materials, clothing, and vegetables. The celebration also included a traditional Kui dance and singing. This event was not only commemorating the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples but also exhibiting indigenous peoples’ culture and beliefs.
Role of indigenous women in the preservation and transmission of traditional knowledge
In terms of culture and tradition, indigenous people have a strong relationship with natural resources, and women have knowledge of the land and natural resource conservation. The community offers their prayers to the woodland, forest, and mountain spirits. Women in the field must pass on the knowledge to the next generation to continue recognizing and protecting the forest. There must be a forest in the village, and it should be maintained to ensure food security as well as spiritual beliefs. Indigenous people teach the next generation about how the importance of forests. Currently, the livelihood of the indigenous people is not the same as before. If young indigenous people don’t involve with the elders, their land, forest, culture, livelihood, and language will be in a greater lost from generation to generation. The indigenous people’s agriculture is not destroying the forest as some say indigenous people cut the forest for agriculture. The forest loss is not the indigenous people’s fault; it is because of the development project that cleared the land. The community has been doing agriculture for many years before, but there is not any great forest loss.
Challenges of indigenous women on the land and forest protection
The indigenous people show their enthusiasm for protecting their land and forestry. They think that this is their obligation to protect the forest for their lives and their generation, who they love from the bottom of their heart. It is not only for the indigenous people but also for all Cambodian people. The front line of land and forest protectors are mostly women because most of the men only do their specific work. Although there are NGOs, CBOs, indigenous communities, etc., that support them, indigenous women still face several difficulties and problems. The family somehow does not encourage or support them to involve in those activities due to unexpected encounters with the company and government, which could harm them or the whole family. When there is a land dispute with the company, the communities might be hurt and get involved in the trial. The indigenous people claim that they receive injustice solutions or decisions from the court. For example, they could get into prison because they do the farming on their own land, where the land has been given to the company without their agreement. The local authorities do not act or find solutions for them, and they just keep silent. Therefore, the community has no choice. They could only pray to the spirits.
Joints statement of the Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Alliance (CIPA)
Women have an important role in indigenous societies, leading, managing, and protecting collective cultural identities, traditions, land, and natural resources for indigenous groups and communities. Indigenous women who take the lead in land and natural resource protection are frequently subjected to social threats, discrimination, and unfair legal application, which can result in lawsuits, imprisonment, family separation, poverty, a lack of personal security, and legal restrictions or prohibitions on land rights. CIPA, as the representative of all indigenous communities, calls on all indigenous women to continue their efforts to strengthen their capacity, network, and voice in all trends and mechanisms to ensure their full participation, leading, preserving, transferring traditional knowledge, and sustaining indigenous peoples’ development in accordance with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. CIPA also seeks direct help and support from national and international organizations, governments, and courts for indigenous women. Simultaneously, indigenous peoples press the Ministry of Justice and judges to strengthen law enforcement and acknowledge legal rights that protect indigenous peoples’ rights to ensure that they, as victims, receive a fair trial.
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Environmental data and strategic environmental assessment (SEA)
Phnom Penh, 03rd November 2022, Open Development Cambodia (ODC) hosted a Technical Workshop on Environmental Data and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). This workshop was supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through Family Health International (FHI 360) under Cluster Anchor Grant from the Civil Society Support (CSS) Project and Heinrich Böll Stiftung (HBS) under Promoting Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for a more Transparent and Responsive Environmental Governance in Cambodia Project. The workshop aims to: Raise awareness of the SEA among CSOs, citizen journalists, indigenous people, and researchers. Discuss and share the current statue of the SEA in Cambodia Identify the potential of integrating SEA and its implication in environmental and natural resource management. The event brought together 32 participants (11 females) from the Ministry of Planning (MoP), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Family Health International (FHI 360), other international and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), journalists, researchers, and indigenous peoples (IPs). Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Mr. THY Try, Executive Director/Editor-in-Chief of Open Development Cambodia, and Mr. MATHEW Baird, Director of the Asian Research Institute for Environmental Law, have highlighted the differences between EIA and SEA as well as some procedures of SEA. Development projects typically promote economic development, but they should not neglect or ignore the impact on the environment and society. SEA incorporates environmental considerations into policies, plans, and programs (PPP). SEA is used to estimate and evaluate the consequences of specific development PPP. It means that the project is not there yet. The government will decide whether the project could be implemented or invested in that area. It usually happens before doing the EIA. In contrast to the commonly used EIA, which occurs after the decision-making process, SEA occurs before all important decisions, which offers significant advantages. It was initially promoted to fill gaps in project-based EIA due to the limitation of EIA to address the environmental policy integration at the strategic levels, particularly during policy and plan-making. The capacity of EIA to account for the strategic consequences of subsequent projects in a single area is limited. As a multi-stage process focusing on overall sustainability, SEA takes a proactive approach to all development activities, identifying key obstacles before final approval. Public participation is the key point, and it must be included in both SEA and EIA processes. EIA and SEA complement each other. It does not mean that we can ignore one of them. Mr. THY Try also demonstrated a video about the UNECE SEA Protocol, which was created by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) as part of the EU-funded program “Greening the Economies in the European Neighborhood.” The protocol establishes clear and transparent procedures for incorporating environmental and health concerns into national development plans, programs, and legislation. Spatial Plan and its Integrated Landscape Approach Mr. SENG Teak, Country Director of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), presented one of the significant implementations called the “Mondulkiri Provincial Spatial Plan.” He highlighted the 2040 scenario-based analysis for the province divided into three scenarios: conservation, green economy, and business-as-usual. The first scenario, “conservation,” could keep the forest cover in Mondulkiri up to 85% by mainly protecting all forests inside and outside the protected areas (PA) and using non-forest areas for agricultural and development areas. The second scenario, “green economy,” only protects the forest in the PA, whereas the forest outside the PA and non-forest areas are used for agricultural development areas. By doing so, the forest cover in the provide will remind 53% by 2040. In the last scenario, “business-as-usual” will not enforce forest protection, and the forest cover will remain at only 34%. In brief, the second scenario is used for the spatial plan for Mondulkiri and will be adopted shortly. The spatial plan is critical because it has the potential to provide effective development principles and tools for informed decision-making and spatial development processes to promote balanced territorial development. The planning could be done by following significant steps, including establishing a multi-stakeholder platform, building a shared understanding, collaborative planning, implementing, monitoring for adaptive management and accountability, and shaping the context. The potential of SEA Integration and its Implication on Natural Resource Management H.E. NOR Vanndy, Director of the Economic Statistics Department, National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning (MoP), and Mr. TEP Sakmakara, Deputy Chief of Office of the Department of Economic Statistics, MoP, highlighted how the ministry addresses the environmental data and issues in the development plan. Integration of environmental issues in the development plan is the initial stage, and the country should do it. Environmental issues are considered to include in long-term and medium-term development plans such as National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) and Sector Development Plan. It was observed that the integration of the environmental issues in the previous NSDP (2014-2018) is less and not paid much attention. Therefore, the government has considered and added more environmental issues to the new NSDP (2019-2023). Chapter 4 (4.42) of the NSDP (2019-2023) “Promote the inclusion of strategic environmental assessments in the decision-making process, policies, plans, and legal documents to ensure the sustainability of the environment and natural resources.”
Charay indigenous community celebrates the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People in TangSe Mlue village
The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is very important to all indigenous peoples worldwide to celebrate all together and respect that day to make it a meaningful holiday for indigenous peoples. The day can be a day to review indigenous rights and freedom to decide to do something in their community. They get the right to access information, covenants, laws, and policies. Therefore, the indigenous community, with support from several stakeholders, celebrates the 29th International Day of Indigenous Peoples and the 19th in Cambodia on 9th August 2023, aiming to promote culture, traditions, language, beliefs, customs, dances, musical instruments, leadership, and community solidarity. Open Development Cambodia (ODC) partly supported the indigenous community through Conserve Indigenous Peoples Languages Organization (CIPL) to celebrate the 29th International Day of Indigenous Peoples and the 19th in Cambodia at TangSe Mlue village, Nhang commune, Andoung Meas district, Ratanakiri province, Cambodia. The event brought together 111 participants (35 women), most of whom are Charay indigenous peoples. There were representatives from local authorities and civil society organizations including, CIPL, Highlanders Association (HA), Indigenous Community Support Organization (ICSO), and Development and Partnership in Action (DPA). Most of the participants expressed their excitement and enthusiasm about what they celebrated and learned during the day. Ms. Klan Tem, an indigenous youth group, read the history of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples. According to the United Nations Report on Indigenous Peoples in the World, 476 million Indigenous peoples live in 90 countries, accounting for 6.2 percent of the world\'s population. According to the Cambodia Census 2013, there are 183,831 indigenous peoples (24 groups) in Cambodia\'s 15 provinces. They are linked to natural resources such as forests, water, and land. The majority of them are farmers who hunt animals and collect honey. They also collect non-timber forest products to supplement their income. Mr. Aem Dea, Angdong Meas district local authority, delivered the speech, encouraging the Charay indigenous community in TangSe Mlue village to protect their culture and land. He also mentioned indigenous communal land registration. Mr. Heam Som Orn, a local authority in Nhang commune, shares his enthusiasm for the event. He is proud of the community for gathering to celebrate the event. He hopes that indigenous peoples can safeguard their culture indefinitely. Finally, CIPL screened a video about the \"Effects of Flooding on Indigenous Peoples in Tangse Mlue Village,\" which was produced by indigenous youths, supported by CIPL and ODC through the Civil Society Support Activities: Cluster Anchor Grants funded by USAID through FHI360.
The second cluster convention
The second cluster convention was held on 19 December 2022, at the FHI 360 Office in Phnom Penh, with 25 participants (06 females). The convention brought together the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction (MLMUPC), the Ministry of Interior (MoI), civil society organizations (CSOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), media groups, and representatives of indigenous people from Preah Vihear, Ratanakiri, and Mondulkiri provinces. Open Development Cambodia (ODC) hosted the convention, which was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through Family Health International (FHI 360) under Cluster Anchor Grant from the Civil Society Support (CSS) Project. ODC is the anchor and collaborates with three cluster members: CamboJA, the Conserve Indigenous Peoples Language Organization (CIPL), and Young Eco Ambassadors (YEA). The project aims to make natural resource management (NRM) more sustainable, inclusive, and participatory by incorporating Indigenous Peoples’ needs and concerns. ODC hosted an initial cluster convention on 13 September 2022 to involve all the cluster members and networks to build the networks, learn from each other, map the significant strategy, and step on further activity on the natural resource management (NRM) advocacy in Cambodia. In this convention, we will update the progress of the indigenous communal land titling in Cambodia, which is a curious and significant topic for today’s talk. The convention aims to: Create a friendly environment for networks to learn and share Keep current updates on the indigenous communal land titling in Cambodia Encourage cluster members and stakeholders to work together. The representative of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction (MLMUPC) and the Ministry of Interior (MoI) shared the current update on the indigenous communal land titling. Currently, 152 indigenous communities have registered as legal entities with the MoI, while 94 communities have requested communal land titles from the MLMUPC. Due to various challenges and encounters, 26 of these communities were suspended. Some people may be interested in obtaining private land ownership to sell or in obtaining a micro-finance loan. In some cases, the requested land overlaps with natural protected areas and forest cover 2002 established by the Ministry of Environment (MoE) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). Currently, 38 indigenous communities in four provinces have received communal land titles totaling 39,342 hectares: Stung Treng (02 communities), Kratie (04 communities), Mondulkiri (07 communities), and Ratanakiri (25 communities). Two more communities are expected to receive communal land titles by January 2023. The convention also discussed the challenges of land titling. The participants had the chance to question ministries and ask for advice to solve their problems. The process of the land tiling is complicated and time-consuming. The land title sometimes cannot be issued and is suspended due to several challenges. Due to the limitations of the indigenous people\'s knowledge of the Khmer language, legislation, and registration procedures, they always find it difficult to obtain land titles without support from the CSOs and CBOs. In some cases, indigenous peoples are unaware of the benefits of communal land titles. Some community members may see the personal benefits as superior to the sharing and wish to withdraw from the community. It meant that they would like to have their private land title. The local authorities sometimes do not reluctant with the indigenous communities regarding the land titling procedures even though the ministries are trying to speed up the land registration. In many cases, the community refuses to accept the land that the government is willing to provide. After the participatory discussion, the indigenous community is encouraged to document the issues or problems with communal land titling and report them to the working group. ODC will continue to host the quarterly cluster convention with the cluster member and networks to share lessons learned, information, and prioritized issues on natural resource management, environment, forestry, land, indigenous peoples, the strategic environmental assessment (SEA), and environmental impact assessment (EIA).