“Playing by the rules ... a novel approach”, 9 August 2014

…Carefully navigating the bureaucracy of Cambodia’s notoriously messy land rights management, Grandis [Timber]…set about growing a teak forest, a cash crop that won’t reach its full potential for another 25 years…Grandis stands out as one of those seemingly living up to the intended development model. Before planting its first seed, the company recruited the help of German development agency GIZ, to implement the “leopard skin” approach, a method that accounts for people’s location within the ELC, leaving them to live on “leopard spots”, rather than evicting them from the concession…Many of those living on or around the concession have also found work at Grandis, which can employ up to 700 people…“We are a large project, so we can have negative and positive impacts here…[P]eople that come here and invest from overseas have some form of responsibility to do the right thing,” [Wayne] Burton [Grandis Timber CEO] says.