In defense of land rights: A monitoring report on land conflicts in six Asian countries 30 fear, psychological disorders, social inequalities, and an increased sense of insecurity and vulnerability. Causes of Land Conflict Inequalities in land distribution, landlessness, discrimination and social exclusion lie at the core of land conflicts. In Bangladesh, for instance, almost 60 percent of all households own only 4.2 percent of the land, whereas 6.2 percent of the top landowners own 40-45 percent of lands (Barkat and Suhrawardy, 2018). Moreover, many of the lands under private possession and cultivation are unregistered. This makes them highly vulnerable to land grabs and eviction, especially when private investors and government officials are involved. In Cambodia, 85 percent of the population is rural, many of them cultivating lands without proper recognition of ownership. And while their traditional use of nearby forests is locally recognized, the central State has its own laws that govern forests as part of the State public domain. Another root cause of land conflict is the historical disenfranchisement against indigenous peoples and certain sectors whose lands were never restituted and have been under long-standing claims. Nevertheless, many indigenous peoples today live in the remaining frontiers where biodiversity and forest ecosystems have been kept intact over many decades through customary practice, traditional management, and sustainable use. However, where their customary rights to land and territories are not legally recognized by States, indigenous peoples face increasing external pressures and further marginalization by continued in-migration of settlers, expansion of commercial agriculture and forestry, extractive industries such as logging and mining, and the expropriation of lands for development and tourism. Once considered as the “peripheries” of the State, the traditional territories of indigenous peoples have been increasingly targeted especially in the last two decades for largescale projects and private investments (Quizon, 2013a). ANGOC There is an increasing clash between different tenure systems – legal, informal and customary. In Nepal, customary/communal land tenure systems such as Kipat were abolished in 1964, although it continues to be practiced in the hilly regions. To provide for a more egalitarian distribution of land, and to address social exclusion, agrarian/land reform programs were instituted in all six countries