tailieunhanh - The rubber-tree boom in Cambodia: Assessing small landholders’ optimism

Le Cameroun couvre une superficie d'environ 470 000 km et comptait, en 1976, une population de 7,66 millions de personnes, dont 602 515 dans la Province du sud ouest. II existe de grandes étendues de forêts tropicales, des gisements d'huile (en cours d'exploitation), du gaz naturel, de la bauxite et du minerai de fer, ainsi que d'autres mineraux en quantites moins importantes; il existe egalement un potentiel considerable dans le domaine de la production d'énergie hydro-électrique — déja exploité pour . | The rubber-tree boom in Cambodia Assessing small landholders optimism By Christophe Gironde Paper presented at the International Conference on Global Land Grabbing II October 17-19 2012 Organized by the Land Deals Politics Initiative LDPI and hosted by the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University Ithaca NY. GLOBAL LAND GRABBING II Cornell University - October 17-19 2012 The rubber-tree boom in Cambodia Assessing small landholders optimism Christophe Gironde Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Geneva Switzerland Abstract This paper questions common understandings of the process of agrarian change and the fate of peasantry through a case study of large-scale land acquisitions LSLAs in Northeastern Cambodia that provides evidence against such understandings. On the highlands of Ratanakiri the local economy has undergone a process of restructuring around rubber crops over the last five to ten years as illustrated by large areas of cleared land ready to be planted young plantations not yet productive and numerous settlements on the edges of large and enclosed landholdings. Vietnamese companies and Cambodian individuals who acquire large landholdings are the main drivers of this process. The pioneer front dynamics have also attracted an increasing number of migrants from lowland provinces. Additionally small landholders deploy efforts to participate in the boom. In contrast with the literature which suggests a rather pessimistic view of the consequences of large-scale landholdings for indigenous small landholders livelihoods most indigenous peoples interviewed were optimistic about rubber and were deploying efforts to develop rubber plantations. What are the reasons behind their optimism What is their rationale for planting rubber Is it rational . can it be profitable when considering the competition from large-scale plantations the competition of in-migrants and the rubber commodity-chain Based on field research carried out in