ROYAL UNIVERSITY OF PHNOM PENH DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY M.A. SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY Present: By Thol Dina Situated Knowledge on Land Use practice A case study in Ratanakiri province In the Context of Development

General Background  Ratankiri locates in the Northeastern of Cambodia with 1.16 million ha and four main agro-ecological zones. 1. Central Plateau 2. Hill region 3. Mountain region and 4. Low land plain region  It has 9 districts with eight ethnic groups  Those ethnic minority groups still practice their traditional knowledge and some of them have changed their practices because of the introduction of market economy.  Some indigenous villages face the danger of land grabbing.

General Background  Most indigenous people live in a poor condition, illiterate and far from the lowlanders, but now some of them have interact with the lowlanders.  They mostly have been practicing “shifting cultivation” agriculture or and pragmatically gather forest products (Chayan et al., 1995). They still grow hill rice but they also involve in cash crop practices.

General Background  After 1993 Ratanakiri has become the new frontier for settlement because of the introduction of development projects in this area.  With the immigration, more troubles are added to highlander people, especially on land issues.

History of development in the northeastern provinces  The first development projects were brought to the areas since the French colony period (Ironside et al., 2003)  The French built military outposts, primary schools, health care centers, rubber plantations, etc.  These projects were not successful.

History of development in the northeastern provinces Sangkum Period ( )  Special attention was given to NE Cambodia because of the threat of Communism  Some primary schools and health care centers were built, especially in Ratanakiri  Rubber plantation was expanded.

History of development in the northeastern provinces Khmer Republic ( )  High-ranking staff and the retired officers to live in those provinces including the provinces in the northeastern Cambodia to control the local people (Colm 1996)  Those outside people destroyed forest to expand rubber plantation and hunted forest animals.

History of development in the northeastern provinces Heng Samrin Regime (1980s)  The Heng Samrin government reestablished local administration system in northeastern provinces, especially in Ratanakiri in 1980  In 1980, Vietnamese logging company started to build road from Vietnam border to Ratanakiri and destroyed forest

History of development in the northeastern provinces The Royal Government (1993)  Ratanakiri has become new frontier for immigration. Lots of NGOs and different types of projects were introduced to Ranakiri, especially SEILA program.  There are many land concession and forest concessions to both legal and illegal companies, especially logging companies.  After Ratanakiri is being concerned as a development area, many indigenous people lost their land and the forests are in danger land conflict, land lost  Outsiders want to occupy land or start agriculture, and some interested in forest.

Problem Statement  Despite the encroachment of forest land by outsiders, many ethnic communities can still keep and protect their forest.  These ethnic communities seem to have developed their indigenous knowledge on land use, and maintained their customary practices in the use of their forest and forest resources.  These ethnic minorities have experienced development from the government and NGOs; they have learned new ideas, have more contacts with outsiders, including tourists, and have been increasingly linked to market economy.  Thus how are the practices of indigenous on land use in the context of development.

Objectives  To understand ethnic minorities indigenous knowledge on land use practices;  To investigate how indigenous knowledge has been developed, maintained and strengthened in the context of development;  To study how the ethnic minorities use their indigenous knowledge (making claims, etc) in dealing with conflicts in resource management.

Research Methodology  Field site  Participant Observation Gather information on the practice of land use and join directly with villagers  In-dept interview  Informal interview  Secondary data collection

Literature Review Property Right/Access Theory  Property right is defined as a schema ranging from authorized users to claimant, proprietor, and owner  It right refers to the actions that are authorized which means that legally acceptance (V. Ostrom 1976)  property right is the authority to undertake particular actions related to a specific domain (Commons 1968)  property rights refer to access and withdrawal  There are two main kinds of property rights, de jure and de facto property rights.

Literature Review Property Right/Access Theory  Access is known as the right to enter a defined physical property while withdrawal is the right to obtain the products of a resource  Access is the ability to benefit from things- including material objects, persons, institutions, and symbols.  Rights-based Access -Legal access and illegal access.

Literature Review The Concept of Indigenous knowledge  Indigenous knowledge can be seen as the knowledge owns or belongs to a community  Indigenous knowledge appears as multifarious, contestable product of an ever-evolving process (Sillitoe 1998 )  Indigenous knowledge is a repertoire of situated experience developed in particular physical and cultural contexts from intimate relationship between man and the nature (Yos Santasombat 2003)

Literature Review  Indigenous knowledge is not a limited knowledge  Studying about indigenous knowledge needs to include the issue of how rather than what (Gardner and Lewis 1996)  Indigenous knowledge is a scientific knowledge and could be understood as a system (Gatter and Ichard 1993)

Literature Review  Indigenous knowledge never stands still but it is dynamic and strategic (Sillitoe 1998 and Sikana 1994)  This can be seen from the experience of Kiaspo people in South America

Literature Review Development Theory  Capabilities approach or development as a freedom is the famous theory, introduced by Amartya Sen.  This theory focuses on three points: being, doing and functioning.

Literature Review The concept of development  Sustainable development  To empower people  The popular ideas of development related to the process of transforming poverty into prosperity and the integration of ethnic minorities into mainstream society (Pen Dareth 1996)  Most of the development projects were designed by westerners without the knowledge of the indigenous people

Literature Review Indigenous peoples  ILO definition  The UN defined indigenous people as those who have historical continuity with pre- invasion and pre-colonial societies that have developed on their territories, considered themselves distinct from other sectors of societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them

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