BLOOD SUGAR - life in the Cambodian sugar cane plantations In Cambodia today, hundreds of thousands of people are being displaced from their homes, farmlands, forests and 8isheries as investors plunder the country for private profit in the name of ‘development’. In rural areas, more than 2 million hectares have been granted to private companies as concessions for the development of agro-industrial plantations. The sugarcane industry has been one of the worst offenders driving this land-grabbing crisis. At least 75,000 hectares in economic land concessions have been granted to private companies for industrial sugarcane production in recent years. These concessions have led to the destruction of protected forests, the pollution of water sources, and the forced displacement and dispossession of hundreds of families in Koh Kong, Kampong Speu, Oddar
Meanchey and Svay Rieng provinces. Crops have been razed. Animals have been shot. Homes have been burned to the ground. Thousands of people have been left destitute. Some have been thrown in jail for daring to protest. Many families, after loosing their lands and their only source of income, have been forced to send their children to work in the plantations for less than 2.5 USD a day. Despite the abundant evidence of these crimes, none of the responsible individuals and companies have been held to account. Meanwhile, the sugar that is tainted by gross human rights abuses is exported to Europe, where suppliers and importers receive special trade benefits under the Everything But Arms initiative. Š Thomas Cristofoletti / Ruom 2013
>> MORE ON THIS STORY