"Corruption Puts Environmental Defenders at Risk in Cambodia", 8 December 2018

“I’m always worried about being arrested,” said environmental defender Lim Kimsor, carrying a resilient smile. “But I’m not afraid. I’m worried that if they arrest me, who will do the work outside jail?”

For the 30-year old Cambodian activist, an arrest is a very real possibility. Several of her colleagues have already been thrown in prison for their work,…

She started her environmental activism in cooperation with Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Mother Nature Cambodia in 2013, before joining them as staff volunteer in 2017…

Following intimidation of civil society and harassment of two of the co-founders of the organization, Prum Thomacheat and fellow monk Sok Chantra, the Mother Nature team asked to be struck from the NGO registration list and was officially dissolved…

San Mala, a former Mother Nature activist, is one of the environmental defenders who has been arrested for his activism. During Transparency International’s Anti-Corruption Conference IACC in … this year, he told the audience about his experience.

After a successful grassroots campaign to stop one company from dredging sand in the area, the activists, including Mala, turned to a second company in 2016. This company, however, was connected to a high-ranking government official, he said, who “felt really angry with our local activism.”…

Meanwhile, the arrest of Mother Nature activists Doem Kundy and Hun Vannak showed almost opposite effects…