Deal #6246

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Example of Phusai Village (Phouvong District): they saw people doing a survey in the field, but they didn’t know for what purpose. In 2010 they saw a company doing the clearing without letting the villagers knowing about in advance. First the villagers themselves thought that the village authority may got some money from the company which cause conflicts in the village. So they went to see the clearance people on the fields to tell them to stop and when they stopped clearing the villagers went home again, but when they went back to the fields the other day the company was still clearing the fields. So one villager took a gun and pointed it on the wheels of the truck by saying that he will shoot if they don’t stop. Example of Kangyay Village (Xaysetha District): Nobody announced that the company will come, the villagers only saw them clearing the land in 2007. The village chief went to see the district immediately, because households's which lost some land approached the village chief. Together they went to see the district where they received the information that the land will be used for a government project for rubber. At first the household's didn’t put up much resistance. The village chief thinks that this is because their livelihood was not threaten. But when the clearing went on the household's and the chief went again to see the district and the province. Altogether they went to the company. HAAC explained that they already put chemicals on the cleared area and thus these areas cannot be used for cultivation anymore. So, HAAC paid some compensation -> 12 million KIP for 1 ha in 2007. Villagers explained that this was a lot of money for them. But in 2012 the compensation got lower to only 5 million KIP per ha for the rice field. For forest or marked area only 500'000 KIP per ha.