Introduction

Cambodia is endowed with relatively abundant natural resources. The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) holds about 75, 80 per cent of the country's territory under the status of state land, (USAID) 2011. Drawing on fieldwork in north-eastern Kratie Province and south-western Koh Kong Province, this study looks into the controversies and contradictions surrounding the allocation of ELCs and social land concessions (SLCs) in rural Cambodia. They look at how economic and social land concessions have been embedded in the Land Law of 2001 and the Cambodian government's controversial land reform agenda. They then present two case studies from Kratie Province and Koh Kong Province. Collective defiance by small groups of villagers has drawn a certain degree of attention from the local and international media. While everyday resistance strategies in the form of non-compliance and covert counteractions have, at best, prolonged the processes of dispossession and displacement.