Cambodia
My subject for Cambodia is Thun Ratha, one of Cambodia’s most well known and recognisable environmentalists who has been campaigning as part of the Mother Nature organisation against many environmental issues including the exploitation of natural sand resources and the building of hydropower dams
About Cambodia
Cambodia is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, , bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh.
The primary environmental concerns in Cambodia are deforestation, loss of natural coastal environments due to sediments and fertilizer and in the cities inadequate sanitation infrastructure
About Thun
In 2014 Ratha was working and living in the capital city of Phnom Penh when he attended a meeting and heard Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson , a co founder of the environmental group Mother Nature, talk about the planned buiiding of a hydroelectric dam in Areng and the impact it would have on the local environment.
Mother Nature had been founded in 2013 to help local communities mobilise against the planned hydropower project in the Cardamom Mountains.
He left home the following year and travelled to a number of communities finding out about the environmental impacts of actions such as illegal unregulated sand mining. He presented his findings along with other activists in a powerful video produced by Mother Nature
The images and video of Ratha buried neck-deep in sand gained significant exposure on social media and most of the extraction and exportation of marine and coastal sand came to an end soon after the campaign. The hydroelectric power development in the Cardamom Mountains was also eventually scrapped in 2017 after years of the group's protests.
He has been pursued by the authorities since 2017 and was finally arrested in September 2020 and sentenced to 14 months in prison for incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest. Following his release he has to report every month to the authorities and cannot leave the country.
Watch the portrait's story below
This video shows the painting process, and tells some of Thun's story.
