One of Mother Nature Cambodia's most successful strategies has been to use social media, chiefly our own Facebook page 'Mother Nature Cambodia', to highlight not just the beauty and fragility of the areas we are striving to protect, but also to expose the corruption, human rights abuses and environmental destruction that comes hand in hand with so-called development projects under the dictatorship of Hun Sen. Our videos, a mixture of thorough investigation - online as well as grassroots-based - and short and easy to digest messages presented by brave activists, regularly reach millions of Cambodians. Some of them have also been repeatedly picked up by the media, politicians, NGOs, etc, and have helped inspire countless others to become engaged in environmental issues afflicting our country. And perhaps most importantly, these videos have provided a chance for Cambodians from all walks of life to express their own opinions and feelings in issues such as the protection of the environment and transparency, while at the same time holding those in charge of the government accountable for their actions.
Below is a compilation of our most successful videos so far, in chronological order.
For videos from other years, see: 2018 / 2019 & 2020 / 2021 & 2022 / 2023 & 2024
To get a better idea of the high impact of our videos, mentioning number of Likes, Shares, Comments, etc, watch them on our Facebook page (link next to each video's description). Also do note that as many FB pages pick up and 're-post' our videos on their own pages, the true scale of our videos is much higher than what is depicted in our page.
This is our most viewed & shared video, with over 4.5 million views and over 150K shares. Here we exposed how the vast majority of exports of silica sand to Taiwan are nowhere to be seen in official trade data issued by the Cambodian government. The extraction of this kind of sand - different from marine and river sand as it is extracted from land-based mines - has been taking place in two locations only: one belonging to Mong Rithy in Steung Hao district, Sihanoukville province, and the other one belonging to the thuggish Ly Yong Phat in Kiri Sakor district, Koh Kong province.
Much in line with how these two individuals - both perhaps needless to say with strong links to the self-styled strongman and dictator Hun Sen - these operations have been taking place with close to zero transparency.
Watch it on Facebook here;
After sand dredging caused homes and plots of land to start falling onto the river, villagers living along the Tonle Basaac River, not far from the capitalof Phnom Penh, met with ministry representatives seeking a solution to this problem. The ministry maintains that the riverbank collapses are due to natural erosion of the river. Here one of our brave activists asks the relevant minister for a bare minimum of transparency in the destructive sector.
Watch it on Facebook here;
One of the co-founders of our movement, Doem Kundy, sits on the main beach along Koh Kong city, surrounded by endless piles of garbage, and asks the province's new governor if she is going to do anything about this growing issue. Less than 48 hours later, as if by magic, the governor and scores of 'volunteers' started cleaning up the whole beach and surrounding areas. The power of publicly naming and shaming officials, again at work.
Watch it on Facebook here;
Brave activist Meng Heng exposes the possible relationship between commander of the Prime Minister's personal body guard unit Hing Bun Hieng and the theft of indigenous land in the northern province of Preah Vihear, to make way for a large and mysterious gold mine. Less than 48 hours after the video was released, top level officials traveled to the area to assure the family in the video that her land would be returned to her immediately.
Watch it on Facebook here;
As a result of anarchic sand mining in Sa'ang District, Kandal Province, river banks and people’s homes are collapsing into the Basac River. Whenever local communities ask what's happening, the explanation given by the Ministry of Mines and Energy is farcical, if not outright criminal: that the collapses are happening due to nature and that dredging actually 'helps reduce' them. Not surprisngly, the extraction is done without even a shred of transparency or accountability.
Watch it on Facebook here;
MNC activist Lim Kimsor, a former land grabbing victim herself, exposes the lies and incompetency of the Cambodian government in relation to the alleged ban on further sand exports. The video - showing that such ban was being openly violated - was widely picked up by the media and sparked a nonsensical reaction by the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
Watch it on Facebook here;
One of South East Asia's largest mangrove forests, the Peam Krosaob Wildlife Sanctuary, is again under threat by sand mining. Hun Vannak directly confronts Cambodian Minister for Environment Say Somal on the presence of an illegal sand mining facility. The Minister's response? As usual, muteness (but the facility was stopped on its tracks soon after we exposed it) .
Watch it on Facebook here;
In one of the rare instances where a Cambodian has dared to publicly confront the dictatorial Prime Minister Hun Sen, Hun Vannak exposes the lies and deceit behind the government's recent call for youth to join the government in the protection of the environment. Vannak was jailed in September 2017 under completely fabricated charges, while filming a video on alleged smuggling of silica sand out on the open sea.
Watch it on Facebook here;
Thun Ratha buries himself for a second time in sand and asks yet another question, this time to the Minister of Economy, in relation to irregularities in sand exports to India. Viewed a million times, and shared more than 48K times, this video played an instrumental role in the eventual banning of further exports of construction and reclamation sand out of Cambodia.
Watch it on Facebook here;
This video, showing one of our brave young activists buried deep-neck in a pile of sand ready to be transported to Singapore, not just went viral, it also sparked nationwide revulsion at how 70 million tons of sand exports to Singapore could have 'disappeared' from Cambodia's official export data. It also helped push for the creation of corruption inquiries, and eventually forced a temporary ban on further sand exports to Singapore.
Watch it on Facebook here;
First ever drone footage of the awesome Peam Krosaob Wildlife Sanctuary of coastal Koh Kong, one of the largest in the whole of Asia. The footage, used many times by national media outlets when reporting on the issue of sand mining / smuggling in Cambodia, combines stunning views of the mangrove forests with large scale destructive sand mining, just before the extraction was halted thanks mainly to our effective campaigning.
Watch it on Facebook here;
A snippet of the movie by Fran Lambrick "I am Chut Wuthy", which we posted in 5 different episodes, this shocking footage of local police trying to arrest the brave activist in the jungles of Prey Long (only to be rescued by local forest activists) was one of 2016's most viewed videos on Cambodia's Facebook world. Chhut Wuthy was murdered, most likely on orders from vested interests linked to the country's ruling elite, in April of 2012. His death has inspired countless youth to become environmental defenders., including our group's founders.
Watch it on Facebook here;
Co-founder and Director of MNC Alejandro González-Davidson, exiled out of Cambodia and subsequently blacklisted in early 2015 due to his involvement in the campaign to save the Areng Valley, sends an appeal to Prime Minister Hun Sen and asks to be allowed to return to Cambodia to defend himself against baseless charges related to our campaign against illegal sand dredging. Though the video was viewed over half a million times, and widely picked up by the media, the Prime Minister remained silent. Gonzalez-Davidson remains in the government's so-called 'blacklist', while the Koh Kong's judiciary has issued a warrant for his arrest.
Watch it on Facebook here;
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