AFP
Unsustainable growth and lack of effective client protection in Cambodia’s microfinance sector have increased borrowers’ debts and led to the confiscation of their land when they can’t repay loans, according to a report by two Cambodian human rights NGOs.
Much of the growth has led to widespread over-indebtedness with borrowers’ land titles serving as collateral, said “Right to Relief: Indebted Land Communities Speak Out,” a 22-page report that examines the effects of microfinance lending in 14 communities in eight provinces across Cambodia, all of which are struggling with overwhelming levels of microloan debt.
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cambodia charge high interest rates, require land titles as collateral, and target poor clients who are vulnerable to land loss, the report says.
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by James Fair
Since the late 1990s, the Cambodian government has granted at least nine private companies Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) within the park for commercial crop plantations such as acacia and sugar cane, ecotourism and general infrastructure developments.
Botum Sakor National Park in southern Cambodia has lost at least 30,000 hectares of forest over the past three decades.
Decades of environmental degradation go back to the late 1990s when the Cambodian government began handing out economic land concessions for the development of commercial plantations and tourist infrastructure.
NGOs in Cambodia are said to be unwilling to speak out against the destruction of Botum Sakor because they are afraid they will not be allowed to operate in the country if they do.