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Pack of the European grey wolves in the Animal Park of the Monts de Gueret The Wolves of Chabrières
© Chris Oxford via Wikimedia Commons

From Data to Debate: How Europe Counts its Wolves

BRUSSELS – Across Europe, the wolf population is growing, but so is resistance. Between the numbers, the political and public debate threatens to impact science. Accurate monitoring of the animals is crucial, not only for counting them, but also for understanding how conservation works.

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Parasisi
© Zaïde Bill & Sebastien Segers

Parasisi

BENZDORP/PARAMARIBO - Deep in the Amazon rainforest, on the banks of the Lawa River between Suriname and French Guiana, live the Wayana. The peaceful existence of this indigenous population came to an abrupt end in 1885, when gold was discovered in the region. Since then, the presence of outsiders has left deep scars on their society.

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Svalbard at a Crossroads: Tourism Versus Nature Conservation
© Zeger Dox

Svalbard at a Crossroads: Tourism Versus Nature Conservation

LONGYEARBYEN - Svalbard, once an isolated destination for researchers and miners, is increasingly visited by tourists. Climate change, easier accessibility, and ‘last chance’ tourism have driven rapid growth in visitor numbers. This puts pressure on the fragile ecosystem and raises questions about the balance between economic development and nature conservation.

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Rode diesel
© Hester den Boer

Return of the Red Diesel

POPPEL - Dutch tractors cross the border day and night via small sandy roads to refuel more cheaply in Belgium. Since the Netherlands abolished the tax benefit for red diesel in 2013, cross-border trade has flourished with hardly any controls.

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International wolf Center
© Johannes De Bruycker

The Big Bad Wolf

OUDSBERGEN / YELLOWSTONE - After a century of absence, the wolf is once again prowling our landscapes. Its return is welcomed in forests and meadows, but resistance is growing on farms and in parliaments.

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Wool
© Sarah Van Looy

EU's 'Green' Maths Fuels Fast Fashion

BRUSSELS - Which is more sustainable: a woollen jumper or a polyester one? The European Union proposes a universal calculation to find out. The answer may surprise you: although polyester is a synthetic fibre made from fossil fuels, it is not the plastic fibre but the natural fibre that turns out to be worse for the environment.

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Giftige industrie in Vlaanderen
© Simon Dequeker & Sofyan El Bouchtili

Toxic Industry in Flanders

ANTWERP / RIEME - No one knows how many harmful substances are emitted from the chimneys of Flemish factories. However, the emissions of the limited group of “Substances of Very High Concern” reported by Flemish companies are almost twice as high as those reported by companies in the Netherlands. 

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Duurzaam landgebruik: Gebruiksaanwijzing voor een drukbevolkte planeet

Sustainable Land Use: User Guide for a Crowded Planet

CAMBRIDGE/LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE - How do we use the available land in our own region, and what impact does that have elsewhere? That question is crucial for our food supply, poverty reduction, nature conservation, and the fight against climate change. Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions about land use.

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In Latijns-Amerika kan natuurherstel wél

Latin-America leads the way on nature restoration

PANAMA CITY / BOGOTA / SAN JOSE  - While European leaders keep dragging their feet, some countries in Latin America—despite numerous obstacles and lack of funding—are hard at work to restore their natural environments. Tim Vernimmen visited three of them in the hope they might teach us how to do better at home.

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Grondig Anders
© Antoon Vanderstraeten en Ertsberg

Profoundly Different

BRUSSELS - Agriculture in Flanders is facing challenges. Caught between expanding cities and ever-growing nature reserves, farmers are striving to produce food for a growing (global) population.

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PFAS in het Belgisch bronwater

PFAS in Belgian spring water

BRUSSELS - Spring and mineral waters from the Ardennes, the High Fens and East Flanders contain traces of ultra short PFAS. Analyses ordered by Apache show that TFA has seeped deep into the natural water veins.

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Jungle Juice - Oil Will Have It's Way

LAGOS – For years, the city has suffered severe air pollution caused by high sulphur levels in imported diesel and gasoline. This piece of graphic journalism traces the data trail of the oil from West Africa to European port terminals.

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Plastic Recycling code
© rr

The true cost of a new ethane cracker

ANTWERP – In Lillo, Antwerp, chemical giant Ineos is working hard on its new ethane cracker. Project One. From US shale fields to plastic waste in European incinerators, the plant will emit ten times more CO₂ than Ineos's own projected emissions for the cracker.

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Kan Congo de wereld redden?
© Bart Lasuy

Can Congo save the world?

KINSHASA - Following on from the first part of the dossier on why and how Congo's forests became the world's first lung, John Vandaele explores whether the country can effectively be the 'solution country' it claims to want to be.

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The Last Wilderness

SVALBARD - 'De laatste wildernis' (The Last Wilderness) takes you to two of the most extreme and inaccessible places on Earth: the North and South Poles, and the depths of the ocean.

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Wordt de zee leeggeplunderd?
© Bram Logger

Is the North Sea being plundered?

IJMUIDEN - After pulse fishing was banned by the European Parliament in 2018, many Dutch fishermen switched to flyshooting. However, flyshoot fishing mainly targets species for which there is too little data to manage stocks properly. These are not subject to quotas and fishermen can take them out of the sea without limit. And that is a recipe for overfishing.

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Moretusbrug
© Hanne Van Assche

Moretusburg, A Neighbourhood in Transition

ANTWERP - Between Kapelstraat, the railway tracks and two strips of industrial activity lies a neighbourhood that has been home to peace, conviviality and neighbourly friendship for over a hundred years. In the background, smoke curls from Umicore.

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Bever kerk - Echte grenzen, mentale grenzen
© Koen Demarsin

Real borders, mental borders

BELGIUM - Some 60 years ago, the language border in Belgium was established by law. Although this border has crossed our territories for centuries, it became the object of conflict especially in the 20th century.

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Climate Safe Havens
© Ilvy Njiokiktjien

Climate Safe Havens

CHURCHILL/DULUTH/NUUK - Some places in the world, due to their strategic location, are proving to be unexpected havens in the face of the relentless onslaught of climate change.

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Billionaires Use Hunter-Gatherers to Offset Carbon Emissions

BARAY - Billionaires, luxury tour operators and airlines legitimise their CO₂ emissions with carbon credits from the Hadzabe, a group of hunter-gatherers in Tanzania who hardly emit any CO₂ themselves.

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Het mirakel van Almería
© Cassette for timescapes & Moon Blaisse

The Miracle of Almería

ALMERÍA - At the far end of Europe, on the southern border of Spain, lies Almería. It is a huge province completely covered with white plastic, harbouring Europe’s largest vegetable garden. It is the place where our tomatoes come from, even in winter. But under all the plastic, strange things happen…

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Noord in nood
© Carl-Johan Utsi

North in Need

ENONTEKIO - The Arctic region is warming up four times as fast as the global average. This impacts people and animals.

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Wit goud in Europa
© Marek Kowalczyk

White Gold in Europe. Is Environmentally Friendly Lithium Mining Possible?

ÚSTI NAD LABEM / LANDAU - The 'lithium fever' has devastated the landscape in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, among others. Europe is trying to mine its own lithium deposits in an environmentally friendly way: using geothermal energy. Germany is already experimenting with it in the Upper Rhine Valley. 

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Code Red

ANTWERP - There are many forgotten disasters around the world, but one day they will be in the news again. Are we prepared for when the alert levels reach code red again?

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Opdrogend land
© Simon Clément

Drying up Land

DAMASCUS - The Mesopotamia, an ancient cradle of civilisation, is formed by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. But due to drought and the construction of Turkish dams, the rivers are in danger of drying up.

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Scorching the Earth

SUCRE - You cannot escape the smoke when driving through Bolivia during the dry season. Left and right, people burn their garbage and their fields. As such, fire has been used as an agricultural technique here for centuries - and increasingly out of control. 

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Coral City
© Associate Directors & VRT

Coral City

COLOMBO - A Sri Lankan scientist, also a young mother, is trying to map the patterns of migrating coral larvae to protect the future of coral reefs and her people.

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Yangambi: Een klimaat van spanning
© Wannes Hubeau

Yangambi: A climate of tension

YANGAMBI - In the middle of Congo's tropical rainforest lies Yangambi, a nature reserve where scientists study climate change. To do so, they need an intact piece of forest. But that causes tensions with the local inhabitants, because they use the forest to survive.

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Paradijs niet te koop
© Lieven Bulckens

Paradise not for sale

ST JOHN'S - Barbuda is paradise on earth: a small Caribbean island with beautiful beaches and clear waters full of fish and lobster. Worth noting: on Barbuda, land is not for sale. There is a system of communal land ownership. But cracks are appearing in that, now that property developers have their eye on the island.

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Copsa Mica

COPSA MICA - It is December 1990, the days are short, dark and foggy. Beside the road in Copsa Mica, 2 men are slaughtering a pig. A Romanian Christmas tradition I later learn.

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