Supported projects

BRUSSELS - Belgian firm GSR, subsidiary of dredging group DEME, is dying to go to the deep sea to mine for metal nodules. Ten years ago, GSR applied for an initial licence to do so.

ANTWERP - The pollution around the 3M plant near Antwerp (Belgium) has been known for years. Yet the PFOS scandal did not erupt in Flanders until the spring of 2021.

HSINCHU - Microchips are at the heart of our digital world. Without them, our smartphones and laptops do not work, our cars fall silent and the internet crashes. So it comes as no surprise that car factories are halting production due to a global chip shortage, China and the US are fighting a trade war over chips, and the European Union is investing billions in the chip industry.

BRAKEN - The Belgian town of Braken, on the Dutch border, is home to 1.2 million chickens. They divide the town: residents are tired of the smell, the fine dust and the heavy traffic in their village. To objectify the discussion, the local government ordered an air quality study.

KAPELLE OP DEN BOS/KYMORE - Kapelle-op-den-Bos is where the filmmaker Daniel Lambo was born. Life was good there. Daniel's father worked in the local Eternit factory. The company was one of the world's biggest asbestos producers. Today, we know what happens when people make asbestos, and for many people, this is a problem that happened in the past. But the problem with asbestos is still there, as we see when we look at what Eternit was doing in other countries.

ANTWERP - In a time of growing polarization, geo-political instability and a reduced confidence in institutions, there are people who want real change. Bottom-up seems to be a major shift in the political landscape. Citizens solve problems without waiting for decision-making. This can be the start of a new power structure and will thoroughly change our policy.

BRUSSELS - An investigation by VRT journalist Luc Pauwels shows that since November official Opel dealers have been modifying polluting software in one of the Opel models..

MERERANI - In the mines near Mererani in the north of Tanzania, miners search feverishly for tanzanite. Everyone hopes one day to find a beautiful large specimen of the unique gemstone and to become rich in one fell swoop. In recent years the government has taken extra measures to keep as much of the tanzanite yield as possible in their own country.

PHNOM PENH - The jeans or denim jacket that you bought recently have likely been made in Cambodia. A strike of thousands of textile workers was violently suppressed there a year ago. Journalist Ate Hoekstra and photographer Kristof Vadino show that not much has changed since then.

MANILA - The Philippines is one of the 17 megadiversity countries on the planet. In terms of biocultural diversity and natural resources, it is an Ali Baba's cave. But not for much longer. Its biocultural heritage is being destroyed on a massive scale by mining, biofuel plantations and illegal deforestation. Sand mining, dredging and land reclamation are also contributing to this destruction.

GHENT - In the region of the port of Ghent, the emission of CO2 and harmful particulate matter is related to the failure of European and international climate standards.

NAIROBI - The idea that electronic waste is carelessly dumped in the remote corners of the globalised world is outdated. Everyone wants to get the materials out of our old computers and televisions, including the EU. Arthur Debruyne and Sam Sermon investigated illegal export, e-waste recycling in Kenya and Belgium, and the built-in obsolescence that gives electro-appliances an ever shorter lifespan.

ZURICH - Is there economic life besides capitalist companies and public enterprises? If you take a broader view of the world, you will see how financial capitalism is failing most of all, plunging the global economy into one crisis after another. You will also see how many governments are failing to find the answer to numerous problems and are fleeing their responsibility for a well-functioning economy.

CHARLEROI - While Belgium is dying, Pascal Verbeken walks back to the era of Great Expectations. He makes a hike along the Grand Central Belge, the nineteenth-century private railway line that linked Wallonia with Flanders. An artery of triumphant Belgium, about 200 kilometres long.

BRUSSELS/TARGIA - Asbestos is the perfect model of a substance mined, industrially exploited and widely marketed as a miracle material without proper research into its long-term effects on health. Indeed, it went on being promoted long after it was recognised as dangerous.

LIAOZHONG - Apart from the recent SARS crisis, stories about China tend to be rather over-the-top. They praise the country's unprecedented economic growth and the potential of its 1.3 billion-strong consumer market.

ANTWERP - Denise Van den Broeck spent three years in the harbour, sailing on ships and accompanying officials as they went about their work. The result is a collection of reports and stories set in the space between land and sea, where globalisation and multiculturalism are more than just empty words.