Supported projects

ASSAM - Doorheen de heuvelachtige provincie Assam in India stroomt de Brahamaputa. Deze immense rivier ontspringt in het Himalayagebergte en is bezaaid met zandbanken. Op deze zandbanken - ook wel ‘Chars' genoemd - wonen 2 miljoen mensen. 

KABWE - One of the largest lead mines in the world closes in 1994. Local people in Kabwe, a metropolis in Zambia, see jobs disappear. They are left uninvited with a mountain of harmful mining waste and residential areas polluted by lead.

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.

BWINDI - The Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda has been chosen by the US National Health Institute (NHI) as a ‘hotspot’ for a potential new outbreak of a zoonotic disease like Monkeypox, Covid or Ebola.

BRUSSELS - Animal protein production accounts for 82% of food’s carbon footprint in the EU, and it is therefore necessary to curb livestock emissions in order to reach the goals within the EU green deal.

BRUSSELS - Today, plastics are everywhere. Metres deep on the seabed in the Mariana Trench. At the top of Mont Blanc. At the North Pole. In your blood.

ABUJA - Nigeria is struggling with the threat of undifferentiated waste disposal and water pollution affecting the health of its citizens. Nigerian journalists Oke Peter and Damilola Shittu unravel how the effect of climate change, the inadequate waste disposal system and water pollution are endangering the lives of Nigerians.

BRUSSELS - In 2021, the EU launched the brand-new Farm-to-Fork strategy to make our agriculture more sustainable. Among other things, this strategy aims to ensure that meat production and consumption decreases in member states to reduce the impact on our health and the environment. However, this will not happen without a struggle.

BRUSSELS - Nature and the climate are not doing well and that does something to a person. Increasingly, the psychological impact of the climate and biodiversity crisis is coming to the attention of the public. Young people would be especially sensitive to this, research indicates. MO* organised a panel and asked young people how they felt.

AKIAK - In the fight against global warming, the Arctic is one of the most important front lines. There, the earth is warming three times faster than average.

JOKKMOKK - Sweden is trying at all costs to switch to renewable energy by 2040. But this is coming up against fierce protests from environmentalists and members of the local Sami reindeer communities who oppose the colonisation of Sapmi - the land of the Sami.

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.

BRUSSELS - Though they are right under our feet, soils do not receive much attention. Yet the many free services they provide for us are truly priceless, and they are under pressure. What can we do to prevent all this, and to repair damaged soils, Tim Vernimmen asked eight soil scientists in four countries. In response, they told him about all the things healthy soils can do for us - our food and water needs, our buildings, our health, and the climate - inspiring an article for the popular science magazine EOS that became a plea to stop ignoring the soil. 

BRUSSELS - Climate change is causing extremes in weather, such as more frequent heat waves, periods of drought and intense rainfall. Our farmers notice the consequences of the climate crisis on their fields, in fluctuating yields and failing crops.

VINDELN/LO MANTHANG/OLD CROW - Through the project Indigenous People Today, we investigate the effects of climate change on indigenous peoples, their ways of life and unique cultures. These are indigenous peoples in the northern hemisphere, living in arctic or high-altitude areas.

BRUSSELS - “When discussing drug production, we rarely look at the environmental damage and costs. Belgium, together with The Netherlands, is the main producer of synthetic drugs in Europe, and the chemical waste deriving as a by-product from the production here remains.

BRUSSELS - We replace our phones every two to three years on average, and that's bad news for both the environment and the climate. This article investigates where the key problems lie, what governments should do about it, and what we as consumers can do to help.

BRUSSELS - Open your tap and close it again. The water you just saw was yours for two seconds before draining again. But what do you know about that water? Where does it come from and where does it go? And how long will it continue to flow from the tap?

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.

NIEUWKERKE - 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?

HASSELT - 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.

ANTWERP/ROTTERDAM - Heavily contaminated plastic waste from the Netherlands and the rest of Europe can be illegally exported via the port of Antwerp, unnoticed by inspectors, to countries where it ends up being dumped. Antwerp is an important hub for the international trade in plastic waste. But compared to the port of Rotterdam for example, it has too few inspectors and resources, which opens the door to criminal trade in plastic.

MINA DO BAROSSO - Lithium is the raw material we need en masse for batteries, including electric cars. Under Portuguese soil there is a lot of that 'white gold'.

BRUSSELS - Europe's Natura 2000 protected areas are groaning under nitrogen emissions from livestock farming. Meanwhile, farmers near nature reserves fear for their future. Due to conflicting policy choices, agriculture and nature conversation have become diametrically opposed. The call for a long-term vision is becoming louder and louder. What kind of agriculture do we want in Flanders?