"Northeast Investment Plans Revive Land Grab Fears for Indigenous Community", 12 February 2026

Nearly a decade after plans to develop Ratanakiri’s protected Yeak Laom Lake were blocked, Indigenous communities are worried that a new investment drive in Cambodia’s northeast, which promises hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs in tourism and agro-industry, could revive land grabs.

Located on the outskirts of Bunlung city, the volcanic crater lake and surrounding forest span about 225 hectares (556 acres) and are home to thousands of Indigenous Tampuan. While officially protected since 2019 and promoted as a major tourism site, community members say the area holds far deeper cultural and spiritual significance.

The community has managed the site since 1998, according to Yeak Laom Committee Vice President Ven Churk, who spoke with CamboJA News in December. He recalled a previous attempt to privatize the lake in 2018 for a resort project, which was later denied. At the time, many feared the community protected area could meet the same fate as nearby Phnom Youl, another sacred Tampuan site leased to conglomerate BVB in 2008 for tourism…

Churk said fear resurfaced after officials raised the possibility of handing the lake to a private company during annual meetings with the Ministry of Environment (MoE) in 2023.

… Limited consultation and land grabs in Indigenous and rural communities, as well as in protected areas for commercial projects, have been systemic in Cambodia for decades, along with the resulting environmental damage, rights groups say.

In Ratanakiri, several Indigenous lands and community protected areas have been overrun by monoculture estates and extractive industries. Large plantations have also sparked concerns over deforestation and alleged unsafe working conditions.

Three SPIN projects have been approved in Ratanakiri, though few details on their location or sector have been made public. Only 300 hectares (around 741 acres) set aside for the agriculture arm of Vietnamese conglomerate THACO, to grow an agro-park in an undisclosed location, have been publicly identified.

The firm already operates thousands of hectares of banana and other crop plantations within Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary further south, in an area the government has deemed a “sustainable use zone.”

… Churk pointed to BVB Investment Corporation’s long-stalled development at Phnom Youl, which he said had promised jobs and forest protection. Those jobs never came, parts of the forest were depleted, and the community was largely barred from the area, according to Churk.

Calls to the phone number listed for BVB in the Ministry of Commerce’s business registration database went unanswered.

… Meas Haoen, another Tampuan elder and spiritual leader, said the lake brings the community together as a gathering place and spiritual site they believe protects residents. “Tampuan Indigenous people will always manage this lake,” he said, adding that they do not seek large-scale development…