Supported projects

NANYUKI - De Mens en de Hoorn is a project by Olivia Kortas and Kasper Goethals in collaboration with photographer Johannes De Bruycker. Based on the story of Najin and Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos on earth, they tell about the dysfunctional relationship between humans and their planet.

PUYUELO - Only 15.8% of the total population still lives in the so-called Empty Spain, which covers just over half of the interior of the country. While Spanish cities have doubled or even tripled in size over the past century, the population in the interior of the country has barely increased.

LILONGWE - Malawi is one of the countries hardest hit by climate change. Major floods and extreme drought mean that the harvest fails year after year. Girls are then easy prey for human traffickers.

LEUVEN - The European Commission gave Leuven the prestigious Green Leaf Award 2018 for its climate policy and, in its motivation for naming the city the European Capital of Innovation in 2020, referred to 'inspiring governance models' for getting residents, businesses and knowledge institutions to participate in that policy. However, Leuven's excellent climate performance is not evident from the figures of the past decade. 

BRUSSELS - In the coming years, more forest should be created in Flanders. Minister Demir wants to invest 121 million euros to create 4,000 extra hectares of forest by 2024. A good thing, but how good are we at protecting and planting trees outside the forest?
 

FLEMISH-BRABANT - 20 May 2020. Inhabitants of Flemish Brabant municipalities received a compelling call to strictly limit their water consumption. Despite this, water consumption was abnormally high during this period. Citizens were worried, because in some municipalities there was hardly any water coming out of the tap for a few days. Rainwater wells were empty in many places.

BELGIUM/FRANCE - Belgium is the world's largest exporter of frozen potato products. And that takes a lot of potatoes. An unprecedented Belgian success story. What does the chain look like behind that bag of frozen croquettes or that large packet of chips?

BRUSSELS - Hunting of wild boar in Flanders increases exponentially. Despite restrictive measures because of the coronavirus, 2,196 wild boars were shot in 2020. More than twice as many as in 2016. Many hunters have been using modern, prohibited hunting tools such as night vision goggles in recent years. "If there is control, I can quickly shake it off my rifle," he says.

CONAKRY - Every year, hundreds of thousands of discarded and polluting cars from all over Europe are shipped from Belgium to West Africa. There the wrecks, which pose a threat to the health and safety of the population, can continue to travel hundreds of thousands of kilometres. Attempts to tackle this trade have come to nothing. Simon Oeyen and Arnaud De Decker went to Conakry, the capital of Guinea, in search of our old wrecks.

BRUSSELS - We consume one phone every two to three years on average. That’s not good for the environment nor for the climate. In Europe more than two hundred million smartphones are being sold annually. This market is highly dominated by Apple, Samsung and Huawei. So they determine the level of durability for those devices, and how easy it is to repair them. On one hand our phones often die very fast and we don’t get it fixed, on the other hand the consumer is being seduced by the latest technological advancements.