Property rights regimes in regard to forests and forestland are different from country to the other. In Europe for example are three different forest property right regimes at stake: the publicly owned forest (stakeholders are communes, universities, cities); the state owned forest (stakeholders are the state or the church); the private owned forest (stakeholders are private persons or corporate bodies).

This study aims to provide a brief overview of bauxite mining in three key locations in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. It takes a deeper look into the role that China is playing in investing in bauxite mining and regional infrastructure to strategically position the country as the main market for bauxite, alumina and aluminum from these three countries.

This paper is confrontational and challenges many deep assumptions in mainstream development. It argues that from the early 1990s in many ways Cambodia became a ‘donor playground’. It supports this argument by reference to various arguments in development studies, to a specific case study of intervention in Cambodia, and to an examination of important parts of the relevant donor ‘knowledge production’.

In late June and early July 2012, more than 1,000 student volunteers were dispatched to targeted provinces across the country, accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction (MLMUPC), to implement Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Order 01BB.  The student volunteers were trained in basic measurement techniques, kitted out with military uniforms bearing the MLMUPC’s logo, transported by army trucks, and directed to measure land and grant land certificates to rural residents. This land titling campaign was the personal initiative of Hun Sen and as such received support from all levels of government. Funding for the campaign came from Hun Sen and his wife, as well as from key members of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

Equality for all human beings is a core principal and Leitmotif of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1949 and manifested in many national constitutions. Due to the lack of equal political participation of women quotas were implemented over the last years – by developed and developing countries in order to improve women’s political participation. Empirical evidence shows that it is a powerful and successful tool.