Supported projects

EDMONTON / OTTAWA – Separatism, long a marginal phenomenon, has grown into a broad movement that has gained influence within the ruling UCP in Alberta. Alberta has one of the largest oil reserves in the world and, according to the separatists, too much of the revenue flows to Ottawa. Albertans feel that the West is not being heard sufficiently in federal politics and that environmental legislation, in particular, is hampering the oil industry.

BRUSSELS / MADRID / PARIS – On air and under pressure, meteorologists around the world are becoming unwitting harbingers of doom as extreme weather grows ever more severe. Faced with censorship, denial and an emotional toll, they must confront a haunting question beneath an ever-darkening sky: how do you tell the truth when that truth becomes unwelcome?

TASHKENT / TERMZ / KABUL – The Taliban’s Qosh Tepa Canal is without a doubt a mega-project. It is being built in Afghanistan but will be fed by water from the Amu Darya – the region’s largest river, which lies on the border with Uzbekistan. For Uzbek farmers, this threatens to be a disaster. Europe, too, is keeping a close eye on developments, as a conflict in Central Asia would be most unwelcome.

BRUSSELS - Our Big Five is the compelling and surprising story of the most iconic inhabitants of our natural world. Our Big Five: the fox, red deer, wolf, seal, and lynx. Paul Cobbaert sets out in wonder to find these animals. He wants to know where they live, whether they’re endangered, and how they coexist with humans. Along the way, he talks to biologists, conservationists, artists, farmers, policymakers, and chance passersby.

GHENT / TERNEUZEN - Our region has everything it needs to be a world leader in green chemistry. At least, that is what the government and industry unanimously claim. We put this to the test in North Sea Port, the binational port that says it is fully committed to a circular future. Will the chemical giants along the Ghent-Terneuzen canal lead us to the promised land of clean and circular chemistry?

KILEMBE - Since the first measurements were taken in 1906, more than 90% of the ice in the Rwenzori Mountains on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo has disappeared. Experts predict it will be gone entirely within a decade.

CERRO DE PASCO - The city of Cerro de Pasco lies at an altitude of 4,380 metres in the harsh climate of the Peruvian Andes. It is one of the highest cities in the world, but also one of the most polluted, as there is a huge pit right in the centre of the city.

KINSHASA - Marlies Geyskens travels to Kinshasa, a city of millions that has been struggling with a growing mountain of rubbish in recent years. There, she follows two local artists who make costumes from recycled materials.

MECHELEN - The monk vulture is threatened with extinction. A breeding program at Planckendael Zoo wants to do something about this. But it is a process of trial and error.

ANTWERP - It is well known that plastic and microplastics are everywhere. But the fact that they also leak harmful substances is much less well known. In this book, journalist Isabelle Vanhoutte sounds the alarm about this issue.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.