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Abstract submission of Open Development Cambodia for presentation at
Land and Poverty Conference 2017: Responsible Land Governance—Towards an
Evidence Based Approach, March 20–24 2017, Washington, DC.
Title: Using open data and digital mapping to aggregate evidence for identifying and
protecting indigenous people’s lands and resources in Cambodia
Key words:
open data
innovation technology
indigenous peoples
collective land title
land rights
Cambodia
200 word summary:
Cambodia’s 24 indigenous communities have traditionally managed nearly 4 million
hectares of remote forests. Their wellbeing is tied to land security.
Today they face threats from fast economic growth. It is common for indigenous
communities to find agricultural or mining concessions encroaching on their land,
logging companies clearing their forests or dam builders forcing them to relocate. Land
alienation means loss of livelihood and tradition, poorer health and education.
Agencies addressing the problems can find it difficult to source reliable independent
data to inform and underpin their work. Data is often dated, incomplete or slanted to an
agenda.
Data aggregation and digital mapping in an open data environment provide one
solution. Open Development Cambodia (ODC) an independent, politically-neutral body,
aggregates data and develops interactive maps and datasets accessible in English and
Khmer.
Users synthesize data to their needs, for example matching indigenous lands with
economic land concessions to find overlaps and support the alteration or revoking of
concessions, or locating indigenous communities in mineral exploration areas, guiding
on who should be consulted and compensated.
ODC’s development-focused open data initiative offers a model for developing areas
globally.
This paper bridges two conference themes, around data technologies and securing land
rights.
Full submission:
Cambodia’s indigenous communities face multiple threats to their land and livelihoods
from the country’s fast growth and resulting pressure on forest and other resources.
Organizations developing policies and programmes to help secure these lands need
accessible, independent and reliable data to base their work on. Initiatives that use data
aggregation and digital mapping in an open data environment can provide an effective
solution.
While Khmer people make up 90% of the Cambodian population, there are also 24
groups of indigenous peoples spread across 15 provinces, often in isolated rural areas.
They have traditionally managed nearly 4 million hectares of remote evergreen and dry
deciduous forests.
The long-term wellbeing of these cultures is strongly linked to security of their land and
access to forest resources. However, economic land concessions (ELCs) to industrial
agribusiness, mining concessions, hydropower dams and deforestation (often involving
illegal logging) are having severe impacts.
The rights of indigenous peoples and the importance of protecting their lands is widely
recognised, from the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People
(supported by Cambodia) to the World Bank’s safeguard policies. Cambodia’s 2001 Land
Law makes provision for communal land titles, and a 2009 sub-decree on Procedures of
Registration of Land of Indigenous Communities sets out the titling process.
In practice, little has been achieved: by the end of 2015, only 11 indigenous
communities had received communal land titles. There are approximately 500
communities without title to their lands.
The problem
Much of Cambodia’s infrastructure and systems of governance were destroyed in the
1970s and 1980s during the Khmer Rouge regime and civil war. While the country’s
economy has grown rapidly in recent years, without a strong base of land titling, with
limited law enforcement and huge pressures on natural resources, indigenous peoples
are being alienated from many of their lands, forests and resources.
The scale is enormous: nearly 12 percent of the country’s land area, or about 2 million
hectares, has been granted to investors through economic land concessions (ELCs) that
can last for up to 99 years. In addition, 704,592 hectares have been granted for different
types of mining licenses, and 305,405 hectares assigned to 72 hydropower projects. A
2013 study found that 3.9 million hectares, approximately 22 per cent of the country, is
now controlled by the private sector and particularly the local elites.
Much of this development is in Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces – the two provinces
with the highest number of indigenous groups. It is common for communities in those
areas to claim that agricultural or mining concessions encroach on their land, or that
large logging companies are clearing their forests. Communities are forced to relocate
for dam construction, often with very limited compensation.
Land alienation leads to loss of livelihood, poorer health, fewer education opportunities
and loss of traditional and cultural practices.
When government agencies and civil society organizations develop programmes or
projects to address the problems, one of the challenges they face is finding reliable
independent information and data to inform and underpin their work: what is produced
is often very dated, incomplete or slanted to meet a particular agenda.
Open Development Cambodia (ODC) was launched in 2011 as an independent,
politically-neutral body. It specializes in aggregating data and developing interactive
digital maps and datasets. ODC makes its data resources accessible online to everyone,
in both English and Khmer language. Its management and staff are predominantly
Khmer.
The interactive technology ODC uses allows different map layers to be combined and
assessed. For example, the ODC dataset for community forests lists 337 different
forests, from those less than 10 hectares to one over 5000 hectares. There is a first
iteration online of a map and dataset for indigenous communities that provides data
including the number of families, land size, etc. for different communities.
The potential analyses using aggregated data and digital mapping include, for example:
 matching indigenous lands with economic land concessions: where are the
overlaps, and how much land is affected? Independent data can be provided to
support the alteration or revoking of concessions
 identifying concessions that break the law and can be challenged on that basis.
Under law, ELCs can be granted only on state private land and cannot exceed
10,000 hectares. The same person or legal entity cannot hold several
concessions that total more than 10,000 hectares
 locating the communities in areas given for mineral exploration. This can guide
on who should be consulted and compensated if necessary
 using ODC’s extensive work mapping deforestation in Cambodia to measure the
impact of forest loss on indigenous communities and their forests.
Data is collected and managed in a single database using CKAN, the web-based opensource data management system. Data is available online and downloadable in formats
that include PDF, JPG, SHP, GeoJSON, CSV, KML and HTML. Instead of just providing a
single pre-packaged viewpoint or agenda, ODC’s interactive site invites visitors to
synthesize data and create new knowledge and insights to match their particular needs.
ODC also welcomes groups and individuals who wish to feed data and reports into its
database (with publication dependent on meeting certain criteria and standards in
regard to open data, metadata, citations and so on). ODC has also partnered with other
organisations to share expertise and develop new web content.
ODC’s data and maps have been used by academics, students, donors and development
agencies, journalists, government technocrats, policy makers and investors. ODC
content has been cited in business plans, mainstream and specialist media reports,
government technocrat presentations, academic research and in donor and UN reports.
Information is also a key resource for the young people from all groups who are
demanding more participation in their own governance, helping them find an informed
and responsible voice.
This paper will examine the threats posed to the lands and resources of indigenous
peoples in Cambodia, and look at the role open data, data aggregation, digital mapping
and other data technologies can play in supporting projects working towards land
security for indigenous communities.
In terms of the 2017 conference themes, this paper bridges two:
 Harnessing geospatial data, cloud platforms and other data technologies
 Securing land rights for equity, sustainability and resilience.
The existence of indigenous peoples whose lands and resources are at risk is not unique
to Cambodia. While ODC was the first initiative of its type in Southeast Asia, its
development-focused open data initiative offers considerable potential for other
developing areas around the world.