SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT IN KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA

1.1. RESEARCH BACKGROUND Land is the repository of memory and keeps traces of the past in the absence of a strong written tradition. It is perceived as an open book from which anyone can read and learn about local history: place names, old roads, legends and stories attached to places. For local people, bulldozing the landscape is seen as erasing their history, and disturbing social organisations and traditions. In addition, land is a very essential element of nature on which all living things directly or indirectly depends on. Human being depends on land to produce basic necessities which include food, clothing and shelter. Moreover, land is the principal resource of human beings in general and agrarian society in particular.

In Cambodia–as in many other countries–land is an extremely important economic resource and asset. Land is livelihood. But equally, land is valued as an emblem of rootedness, belonging and stability, and is widely regarded as the very basis of social organisation in the country. In fact for most Cambodians, land is considered to be the foundation of society and life. A family's attachment to its piece of land has particular significance in a society that over the past hundred years has hurtled through successive periods of civil conflict, war, massive displacement, forced collectivisation and genocide, and finally into an unregulated, capitalist, market economy…..