KOH KONG, CAMBODIA – Four years after residents of coastal Koh Kong were evicted from their land by the Chinese state-owned Union Development Group under a long-term land lease, they say the promises of better lives and jobs at their relocation site have proven to be empty.
For most of his life, Hoeurn Noch made his living from the sea, casting his nets off the southwestern coast of Cambodia.
But at 60, he finds himself far from the waters he once depended on, forced inland in his old age – an outcome he’d never envisioned.
Three years ago, Noch was ordered to leave his home in Prek Smach village in Koh Sdach Commune in the Kirisakor district.
The land where his house once stood was absorbed into a vast luxury resort and development project controlled by the Union Development Group (UDG), a Chinese state-owned company that secured a 99-year lease for 36,000 hectares of land from the Cambodian government in May 2008.
The dispute over the land lasted nearly two decades. Families in Kirisakor and neighboring Botum Sakor district resisted eviction, fighting for their land rights in a drawn-out battle that drained them of resources and hope.
By 2021, more than 1,000 families, exhausted by the struggle, agreed to relocate nearly 50 kilometers from their homes under a land titling arrangement – one they saw as their only remaining option.
Noch accepted a compensation package of US$9,000, along with three hectares of farmland and a half-hectare plot for building a new house in a village known by locals as “nine thousands village.”
But now, far from the coast, he struggles to make a living from the dry, infertile soil. There is little access to electricity and tap water, forcing residents to buy water, especially during the dry season.
“Life here is tough. I have no work,” he said, reflecting on the daily contrast with his former life by the sea. Back then, he could earn between 30,000 and 50,000 riel ($7.50 to $12.50) per day from fishing, growing vegetables and picking up seasonal jobs.
His story is similar to those of other residents who left their homes under the agreement with UDG in the same year.
Despite the evictions, most of the land lease plot has been underdeveloped despite the company’s promise of the construction of infrastructure such as an international airport, a deep seaport and an industrial park.
Questionable landowners in land deals
With its prime coastal location, ideal for luxury property development, Koh Kong has undergone a wave of land leases over the past two decades, often resulting in evictions and land disputes.
In Kirisakor and Botum Sakor districts, which cover the southern part of the province, at least 94,489 hectares – the equivalent of 54% of the land in these two districts – has been leased to private companies. Both also host 70% of the province’s land concession
While many land concessions were granted with the aim of boosting the national economy, many have been taken over by questionable companies.
The UDG controls two major concession plots. One overlaps with Noch’s village, while another 9,100-hectare concession was granted to the company in August 2011.
The company was sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for the “seizure and demolition of locals’ land” to make way for the $3.8 billion luxury resorts and casino project in Dara Sakor district of Koh Kong.
The area has also been linked to reports of human trafficking tied to scam centers, as previously documented by VOD, the now defunct independent media outlet.
Other major land deals in the area include concessions granted to the Royal Group, which secured two plots totaling nearly 18,600 hectares in 2021 and 2023.
The company is chaired by Kith Meng, a tycoon close to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), and was accused of being involved in illegal logging.
Meanwhile, LYP Group and LYP Kiri Sakor Koh Kong SEZ, both owned by powerful tycoon and senator Ly Yong Phat, obtained 16,275 hectares. The company owned by his son, Ly Phoonrat, named Koh Kong Rubber Plantation, controls 5,234 hectares.
Ly Yong Phat has been sanctioned by the OFAC for alleged links to scam compounds and forced labor.
He has also been linked to sugar businesses accused of forced evictions and child labor in Koh Kong and Oddar Meanchey provinces. However, his company, Phnom Penh Sugar, dismissed these allegations as baseless and claimed they had caused reputational damage to the senator.
“The CPP has been in power for many years and has an important role to play in making money for itself and its people, such as tycoons, from any source, legal or illegal,” said Alejandro Gonzalez Davidson, the co-founder of NGO Mother Nature Cambodia, who was expelled from the country due to his environmental activism.
“One source that has generated huge income since 2000 is taking public property, such as state land, and turning it into private land.”
With such questionable operations, these companies’ land concessions have often faced a backlash for lacking transparency, governance and public participation, which the Cambodian government denied.
At present, economic land concessions cover more than 2.2 million hectares across Cambodia, with 330 concessions granted. Yet, despite the vast amount of land leased to private companies, the government is set to collect only $4 million in tax revenue from these concessions in 2025 – less than 1% of the country’s GDP.
The modest financial return raises questions about the true benefits of these land deals and their place in the national budget.
Empty promises
The land concessions have not only been questioned over their ownership and origins, but also for their often-overlooked environmental and biodiversity impacts.
Much of the leased land lies adjacent to or within Botum Sakor National Park, Cambodia’s largest protected area, home to more than 200 recorded species. Among them are several listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, including the pileated gibbon, Sunda pangolin, silver langur, hog deer and Asian elephant.
The habitat of these species has been steadily shrinking, primarily due to deforestation driven by large-scale developments and commercial plantations.
Despite covering more than 140,000 hectares, only about one-seventh of this land remains public property, while the rest has been leased to private entities, according to a report by Mongabay and British journalist Gerald Flynn, who has been banned from re-entering Cambodia since January.
According to Global Forest Watch, Kirisakor and Botum Sakor districts – both of which include parts of the national park and land concession areas – lost nearly 32,000 hectares of humid primary forest between 2002 and 2023, equivalent to two times the size of Singapore.
This deforestation has also disrupted the lives of local communities, many of whom relied on non-timber forest products for survival.
Among them was Ton Chay, 29, who once foraged deep into the forests for pdav, or rattan – the canes are used to make handicrafts such as furniture, baskets and woven mats.
But after being relocated several kilometers away in 2020 – when UDG took over his village – he has struggled to find pdav as the forests around him have rapidly disappeared. Other concession-holding companies have cleared land as well, preparing it for future development.
Leav Tam, 33, has had a similar experience. Now living in a new home, surrounded by banana and cassava trees on farmland he received as compensation from UDG, he recalled how he used to collect deadwood in Botum Sakor National Park to make charcoal.
“Whenever I go back now, I find large areas have been cleared. The wild animals I used to see are gone, too,” he said.
Since moving, Tam, who cares for his ailing mother, has seen little new developments or infrastructure projects in the relocation area – only empty land where forests once stood.
“They promised development, but nothing has been built. The jobs they talked about never came,” he said.
Noch, the displaced fisherman, shares his frustration. “If they cleared the forest to build a factory, at least that would bring jobs,” he said. “But if they clear the forest and do nothing, then this development is zero.”
Although much of UDG’s land remains underdeveloped, the company has managed to build casinos in Dara Sakor, near the coast, and has been recruiting staff through a Telegram channel and Facebook and TikTok posts.
Job postings advertise positions such as modeling – with salaries starting at $2,000 – and administrative roles that require a typing speed of 25 to 30 words per minute, with salaries starting at $1,000.
Some employees, speaking anonymously, said applicants are required to submit a video introduction in Chinese before being considered for a position.
The recruitment practices have raised further questions about who truly benefits from these developments – and whether the promised economic opportunities for displaced communities, mainly fishermen and farmers, have ever materialized.
Despite multiple phone calls, UDG did not respond for comment before this story went to press.
However, in September 2020, during a press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin addressed concerns about UDG’s activities, stating that the “Chinese government always requires overseas Chinese companies to abide by local laws and regulations.”
He added that China’s cooperation with Cambodia is “open, transparent, mutually beneficial and equal.”
Few avenues to fight back
Khvay Atiya, a spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, said he was not in a position to comment on the granting of economic land concessions in Koh Kong, referring questions to provincial authorities.
However, he maintained that the ministry remained committed to forest conservation and strengthening local communities’ capacity to protect forests and run eco-tourism initiatives.
“In Koh Kong province, we are seeing a development in biodiversity. We have discovered new rare species, such as the Siamese crocodile,” Atiya said.
Yet when asked about the land concessions, Heng Kimchon, a Koh Kong provincial official, stated that local authorities could not comment on all land deals, nor did they have the right to inspect concession areas, as such decisions were made by the central government.
The lack of transparency surrounding land concessions is a common issue in Cambodia. In many cases, questioning these developments can lead to threats, arrests or even imprisonment.
That was the case for local members of Mother Nature Cambodia, an environmental activist group that has campaigned against deforestation and land concessions across the country, including in Koh Kong.
The organization’s leader, Alejandro González-Davidson, was expelled from Cambodia in 2015, and the group’s legal registration was revoked by the government in 2017.
Since then, activists who remained in Cambodia have been jailed. Ten members of the group have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to eight years after being convicted on charges of plotting against the government and insulting the king.
Among them was Yim Leanghy, 35, who is serving an eight-year sentence and has been ordered to pay a fine of 10 million riel ($2,500).
He is now being held in a 24-square-meter cell in Kampong Speu Provincial Prison, about 40 kilometers from Phnom Penh. His six-year-old son and five-month-old daughter await his return home.
Speaking from behind bars, Leanghy said Mother Nature had pushed for the government to crack down on forest crimes and stop granting protected land to private companies.
“As an environmental activist, I am ready to face this long prison sentence, and I will continue to fight every day for the cause of human rights and environmental protection,” he said.
However, even outside prison, the space to challenge land leases and powerful concession holders remains limited, leaving communities with few avenues to defend their land.
Mao Kim Lay, once evicted from a concession area, now lives near the mountains close to UDG’s leased land. After witnessing families forced to leave their homes, she remains fearful that history could repeat itself.
“I’m afraid,” she said. “If they take my land again, I don’t know where else to live.”
