Movement of Indigenous Communities Targeting an Agro-Industrial Investment in North-Eastern Cambodia

Abstract

This study examines the dynamics and outcomes of movements by indigenous communities that targeted an agro-industrial investment demanding remedy to adverse impacts on their socio-economic conditions. Since the employment of initial institutional tactics, such as peaceful protests and petitions, yielded no significant outcomes, the indigenous communities escalated their tactics to non-institutional tactics: Violent protests. To respond, the government chose a combination of partial repression and moderate concession. To address the government responses, as well as the demands of indigenous communities, the company mitigated most of the adverse socio-economic impacts. As a result, the indigenous communities were able to achieve most of their demands. This paper, therefore, concludes by arguing that tactical escalation of indigenous community movements from institutional to non-institutional tactics influences the government and company to address the demands of indigenous communities, and also shapes the behaviour of the company operating in a host country with lax and uncertain regulatory enforcement.

Protests, Regulations, and Environmental Accountability in Cambodia

“…Compliance is a process of conforming to specific rules, policies, regulations, and standards (Young, 2016b). Compliance with regulations is measured by the extent to which those who are being regulated adhere to the requirements of a given set of regulations (May and Wood, 2003).…”

“…In regulatory theory, there are several types of regulations, all defined differently by various authors (Levi-Faur, 2011). In addition to regulatory compliance, corporations may change their policies by self-regulating to directly address the concerns of aggrieved communities or stakeholders (Young, 2016b). Self-regulation is an approach made by corporations to establish codes of conduct without the direct coercive intervention of the state/government or other external agencies (such as NGOs).…”

“…The most popular mode and entry point of these foreign investments in agricultural land and other natural resources are joint ventures between the foreign investors/corporations and local politico-commercial elites (Young, 2017). With this type of investment and partnership, and given the ambiguous regulatory enforcement by the concerned regulatory institutions, many of these investments have been accused of having a detrimental impact on poor local and indigenous communities, violating basic human rights, and negatively impacting the natural resources and environment of these communities (Schoenberger, 2017;Young, 2016bYoung, , 2017. Given these unfavourable impacts, the affected communities and aggrieved organisations (NGOs) have developed movements to demand accountability from the government and corporations.…”

Introduction: Social Movements in Cambodia

“…Moreover, many investments have been accused of causing social conflict and injustice, negatively impacting natural resources and environment (Schoenberger, 2017), and causing landlessness and other socio-economic issues (Milne and Mahanty, 2015;Young, 2016aYoung, , 2016b. Here and there, however, groups and networks of people raise their voices to challenge the imposed socio-economic order (Bourdier, 2016;Young, 2016c). Various social movements by affected grass-roots communities have emerged in response, sometimes supported by local and international NGOs.…”