Ratanakiri Province
76% indigenous population (Tumpoun, Kreung, Charay) defending land against rubber plantations. June 2024 HAGL settlement saved 10,000 hectares. By 2026: testing if territorial protection holds.
Ratanakiri Province presents one of Southeast Asia's starkest contemporary examples of indigenous territorial defense against industrial land conversion. With 76% of the population comprising eight highland ethnic groups—Tumpoun (24%), Charay (19%), Kreung (19%), and others collectively termed Khmer Loeu—the province's development trajectory involves existential conflict between subsistence land systems and plantation capitalism.
The French colonial period established the pattern still playing out. Labansiek (now Ban Lung) hosted rubber plantations using local laborers for building and harvesting. Post-independence, the Khmer-dominant state attempted forced relocations and labor extraction, met with resistance severe enough to abandon the effort. This historical pattern—external capital seeking to convert indigenous land use into plantation monoculture—repeated with intensified force in the 21st century.
Vietnamese company Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) exemplifies contemporary land pressure. Concessions covering approximately 5% of the province overlapped with indigenous community land, resulting in documented harms: illegal seizure of agricultural land and crops, clear-cutting of resin trees, destruction of sacred sites including spirit mountains and burial grounds, and damage to water resources. This represents wholesale assault on subsistence systems—converting diversified indigenous land use into rubber monoculture.
The June 2024 settlement between HAGL and indigenous communities represents partial defense success after a decade of advocacy. More than 10,000 hectares of forest were spared clearing, and two of 14 villages escaped land grabs entirely. Sacred area demarcation awaits government implementation. This outcome demonstrates that organized indigenous resistance with NGO support can modify but not prevent industrial encroachment.
By 2026, Ratanakiri's trajectory depends on whether communal land titling and sacred site protections become enforceable, or whether incremental conversion continues eroding indigenous territorial control.