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 and expose the corruption, human rights abuses and environmental destruction that usually comes hand in hand with so-called development projects by the authoritarian government of Hun Sen. The main reasons we started producing our own stuff back in 2013 were simple: most mainstream media outlets did not dare report on the issues we were working on, and the few independent outlets that existed - most of whom have been since shuttered by the regime, sadly - did not have the resources to visit the remote areas where we usually work. So we decided to create an opportunity out of this seemingly insurmountable obstacle: to produce our own stuff. Our videos, a mixture of thorough investigation and short and easy-to-digest messages presented by our brave activists as well as citizens from all walks of life, have been viewed over 20 million times, and shared more than a million times, and that's just since 2015. This is a most remarkable achievement for several reasons: a) as anyone with experience in producing videos knows, it is not easy to produce stuff that is attractive to the general public; b) the risks associated to filming and speaking on videos in Cambodia can be high, with arbitrary arrests and even jail time not at all unusual (as some of our activists can sadly vouch for); A lot of our videos are regularly picked up by the media, politicians, NGOs, etc, and have in many cases forced the Phnom Penh regime to publicly respond (not an easy feat in Cambodia by any means), for instance by backtracking on key decisions, or by putting an end to certain destructive practices. Not just that, but we are proud to say that many young people have told us that they find the videos inspirational, and that they too want to get involved in social justice and environmental protection. Below is a compilation of our most successful videos so far, in chronological order.
For videos from other years, see: 2016&2017 / 2018 / 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.
Pretty much all of Phnom Penh’s lakes and wetlands, which act as crucial water reservoirs, are being filled in one after the other. The 'Tamok' wetlands, the largest of them all, is now suffering the same fate as so many others, as usual under the pretext of ‘development’. This is already causing serious floods in Phnom Penh, and needless to say impacting local communities whose livelihoods depend on the lake.
Watch it on Facebook here.
Cambodia is a land blessed with natural resources. The nation's forests, mountains, sea, beaches and islands are priceless resources bestowed upon us by our ancestors, and it is the role of this generation of Cambodians to take care of these priceless gems. In this latest video, two of our young activists show you more of the beauty of the stunning Koh Kong island, the nation's biggest and by far its most beautiful, and make a request for you to take part in the effort to protect it from destruction.
Watch it on Facebook here.
In the midst of the Corona virus crisis, it is important not to forget that in Cambodia crimes against nature by a small group of individuals continue unabated. A recent report by the University of Southampton, shows what the true impacts of the out-of-control sand mining along the Mekong River are. Who benefits the most from this excessive extraction? What are its true impacts, especially on communities living along the riverbank?
Watch it on Facebook here.
16 months after we disclosed how raw sewage was being dumped onto Sihanoukville's beaches, it is now time to take a look at a similar issue happening in the historic Songkae river, in Battambang. Sewage, seemingly coming mainly from the city's largest hospital and containing E-coli, tricomonas intestinalis, and other dangerous bacteria, is finding its way onto the river. People are bathing and swimming in the river, its fish are consumed by many in the city, and its waters are being used for watering plants and vegetable gardens.
Watch it on Facebook here.
Cambodia is becoming a hub for the traffic of wildlife parts. Relevant Cambodian authorities often report on major busts of wildlife parts, and eagerly present their findings in public. All good, except that no one knows what happens to all of these valuable wildlife parts after they have been confiscated. Despite calls from international organizations, the 'government' refuses to destroy them. Something fishy might be going on here.
Watch it on Facebook here.
No sewage, no garbage, no casinos, no out-of-control construction, and no economic land concessions. This is Koh Kong island, Cambodia’s largest & a paradise of unparalleled beauty. With this video, we kick-start our campaign to save this mysterious and little-known island from destruction, demanding that it is declared a National Park to preserve it future generations.
Watch it on Facebook here.
Starting around 2015, the Cambodian dictatorship started evicting small businesses from Sihanoukville's main beaches, under the pretext that they were illegally 'encroaching on public land'. Just in the last four years since then, no less than 5 large casinos / hotels have been allowed to build as close as 12 meters from the shore. And that is just in one of the main beaches. We expose, with evidence, this latest scam.
Watch it on Facebook here.
Despite having a monthly salary of no more than $500 per month, and no known businesses to his name, Mr. Mongkol Phara, son of the Minister for Urban Planning Mr. Chea Sophara, owns a massive mansion near Sidney harbor with a price tag of more than US$8 million. In this video, we present the evidence and ask the head of the Anti Corruption Unit Mr. Om Yentieng if his much criticized unit is going to do anything about this potential case of corruption.
Watch it on Facebook here.
The Jinding casino & hotel is still open for business, weeks after being ordered by Sihanoukville provincial authorities to shut down. In Cambodia, without a valid licence does not seem to carry much of a risk, as long as the right connections are there, of course. This is our latest video, presented by Mother Nature Cambodia activist Meng Heng, showing further incompetence by the provincial authorities of Sihanoukville.
Watch it on Facebook here.
Straight after Minister for Urban Planning H.E. Chea Sophara boasted on social media ‘Sihanoukville city no longer has any sewage water being dumped onto its sea and beaches’, activist Meng Heng pays a visit to the city’s Independence beach to expose how, as expected, the claim by the minister was a total lie. Raw sewage does continue to be dumped onto the sea, right behind the massive Chinese-owned ‘Sunshine Bay hotel & casino’.
Will Hun Sen’s regime dare to shut down this giant hotel & casino?, or will greed and corruption override any possibility of the law being implemented?
Watch it on Facebook here.
After seeing how the Hun Sen regime is unable to end the growing problem of raw sewage being dumped into Sihanoukville city's beaches, we expose how this awful practice is now spreading to the island of Koh Rong. A few questions surface to mind: why are more & more businesses allowed to be built on the island when there is still no waste water treatment plant in the island? Is this a matter of corruption or incompetence, or perhaps both, by the relevant officials? Why is Minister for Environment Say Somal, presented to the Cambodian public a few years back as the young and capable reformist, totally mute on this issue?
Watch it on Facebook here.
The pristine island of Koh Rong Somlem, a short boat-ride away from Sihanoukville city, is starting to see more and more development. Two new activists highlight how the problem of sewage being dumped onto beaches (which is needless to say outright illegal) has recently started spreading onto this picture-perfect island. The reaction to this video? Again, surprisingly positive; no arrests or threats against our activists. Instead, an order by the SIhanoukville governor for the casino spewing the sewage to shut down. MNC activists continue to monitor the situation in the islands off the coast of Cambodia, in the hope that they will not meet the same fate as that of Sihanoukville city.
Watch it on Facebook here
As Sihanoukville city suffers from one of its worst water shortages in living memory, what does the (non-democratically elected) government of Hun Sen do? It decides to fill in and sell most of it to the LYP Group, less than two years after Hun Sen had issued a sub-decree declaring the lake a 'protected freshwater area', thus out of limits to precisely this kind of activity. The flimsy reasoning given the dictatorship? That the city now has a secondary source of freshwater, and thus the lake is no longer 'needed'. Stupidity at its best.
Watch it on Facebook here.
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