Nathalie Bertrams is a documentary photographer and National Geographic Explorer reporting on environmental conflict and social justice, mainly across Africa.

Nathalie has an MA in Fine Arts from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and exhibits her work internationally. She is a regular contributor to Süddeutsche Zeitung, De Groene Amsterdammer and Al Jazeera. Her work is also featured in El País, The Guardian, BBC News, Mongabay and Washington Post Magazine and she makes TV documentaries for Arte/ZDF.

She has received multiple grants and awards for her storytelling and is a member of the International Press Institute, Frontline Freelance Register, and Women Photograph.

Basic information

Name
Nathalie Bertrams
Title
Photographer and journalist
Expertise
Environmental conflict and social justice
Country
Belgium
City
Brussels
Links

Supported projects

Big Cats: Balkan Underworld's New Status Symbols

  • Environment
  • Organised crime
  • Trafficking

TIRANA / DURRES / BELGRADE / PRISTINA - Across the Balkans, particularly in Albania, a disturbing trend is emerging among organised crime figures and influencers: the ownership of exotic pets like lion and tiger cubs.

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Baltic Peat, Dutch Profits, and Carbon Emissions

VILJANDIMAA — The peat trade implies big profits. At the same time, extracting peat is carbon intensive and destroys biodiversity. This investigation looks at how this business is especially lucrative for the Netherlands that do not just trade but also mine peat in Latvia and Estonia.

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Dirty Rubber

  • Environment
  • Exploitation

KOUNGOULOU - Europe’s growing demand for natural rubber to produce tyres has been destroying West Africa’s rainforests for large-scale industrial rubber plantations. In Cameroon, rubber conglomerate Halcyon Agri, which also sells rubber to the European Union (EU), has cleared at least 127 km2 of primary rainforest. The rubber market is growing steadily and is expected to exceed $50 billion by 2027.

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How exotic birds are trafficked from Guinea into the EU via Serbia

  • Environment
  • Trafficking

GUINEA/SERBIA/THE NETHERLANDS - According to Europol, the smuggling of songbirds and other tropical birds to the European Union (EU) has skyrocketed in recent years, especially along the Balkans trafficking route.

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Is the EU’s craze for lithium fueling destructive mining operations in Serbia?

  • Environment
  • Industry
  • Politics

BELGRADE - In Serbia, there is a lot of lithium, money and political interest at stake. Under the farming lands of its Jadar valley, geologists from mining giant Rio Tinto found Europe's largest lithium deposits - an amount enough to produce at least one million electric car batteries a year. 

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