Seacoastonline.com
To the Editor:
Chanthy Dam runs an organization in Cambodia called the Highlander Association, which helps indigenous communities like La Lai protect their rights from mining and logging concessions that aim to take away communal lands without consent. Civil society organizations in Cambodia report to Oxfam that there are 67 mining concessions comprising more than 3 million acres of land operating in four northeastern provinces where the highest concentrations of indigenous people live.
The Highlander Association leads training programs for village elders and activists so they can learn about their rights under Cambodia’ land laws.
“The law says no authority can take away ancestral land from an indigenous community,” Chanthy says. “Only indigenous communities have the right to manage indigenous lands.”
Unfortunately, the Cambodian government is too willing to allow logging and mining companies and large-scale plantations to take over tracts of land set aside by law for indigenous communities. That leaves people in La Lai and elsewhere with no place to go. But instead of falling back on a pattern of disengagement from the government and its policies, native communities in the highlands of Cambodia are listening to Chanthy Dam and looking at other options: negotiating, defending their rights and staying put.
So far the Highlander Association has a network of 55 trained activists and has trained others in 95 villages. Sharing information through that group will help ensure that the larger world knows about illegal land transfers in indigenous communities. It also works toward the ultimate goal: to build capacity of villagers to represent their own concerns — to speak for themselves, let them tell their story, own the problem and solve it themselves.
Although the villagers may not appear to pose a match for a well-resourced company, Chanthy is confident that making sure the voice of communities reach the government and the international community, “Decision makers in Cambodia will understand the real impact of their decisions on indigenous lives.”
Unfortunately, Chanthy’s work has also made her a target for violent retribution. On two occasions armed men have waited for her at her farm, though so far she has been warned in time by friends and neighbors.
Heroes like Chanthy Dam risk their lives to help communities overcome poverty, and they’re counting on the support that only you and Oxfam America can provide. Please make as generous a contribution as you can to help us keep investing in programs that make an impact in Cambodia and more than 90 other countries.
Miles C. Freeman
Ogunquit
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