Supported projects

DIBËR / ŠIPOVO - From Albania’s Lusa and Seta waterways to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Pliva River, communities are challenging small hydropower projects through protests and lengthy legal battles. The cross-border investigation documents disputed permits, prolonged court proceedings, contested ...

BUDAPEST / BUCHAREST- Electric fences are spreading across Romania and Hungary as a way to protect livestock and property from wildlife. But what happens when these barriers disrupt the movement of wild animals, block ecological corridors and increase the risk of encounters between wildlife and ...

LUXEMBOURG / RUSSIA - This investigation traces the international networks of companies, traders, vessel owners and insurers connected to Russia's largest coal mine.

OSTIA / VALENCIA - When a young sperm whale’s carcass washed ashore near Rome, its scars revealed how it died: in a vessel strike. The animal was just one of the many fin and sperm whales killed by maritime traffic in the busy Mediterranean Sea.

NOVA KAKHOVKA - Nearly two years after the sinking of two Russian tankers in the Kerch Strait, authorities in the Krasnodar Krai reported that the cleanup operations had been completed. However, this statement merely meant that Russian agencies had ceased their efforts to collect the fuel oil, while ...

VALENCIA / EMILIA-ROMAGNA - Two years after devastating floods in Valencia and Emilia-Romagna, this investigation examines failures in early warning systems and the lessons needed to prevent future disasters as the climate crisis worsens.

ALIAGA / ALANG / CHITTAGONG - When Europe’s ships become obsolete, they are sent to India, Bangladesh and Turkey, where they fetch the highest prices for their scrap metal. Picked apart by poorly paid workers, these vessels take a deadly toll on people and the environment. This investigation ...

LONDON – Extreme heat is not just an environmental issue, but a major and growing public health crisis. By identifying the impact at city level, this cross-border project makes the consequences of climate change tangible and helps inform public debate and action.

CESENATICO / MALI LOŠINJ - Every year in the northern Adriatic, hundreds of loggerhead turtles and dozens of bottlenose dolphins die in Italian and Croatian fishing nets. They are protected species under EU law, and only 250–400 dolphins live in these waters. Officially it is "accidental" bycatch ...

VIGO / TAIPEI - Together, Spain and Taiwan account for almost two-thirds of the world’s reported blue shark catch, turning one of the ocean’s most widely distributed predators into a global commodity.

BUENOS AIRES - Vaca Muerta is a vast area of Argentine Patagonia, home to the world’s second-largest reserve of unconventional natural gas and the fourth-largest reserve of unconventional oil. In 2012, the Argentine government began investing in the region, with the stated aim of using these ...

WALANDAWE - A year-long investigation traces nickel from deforested forests and Indigenous land in Sulawesi through China’s battery industry to Volkswagen’s electric cars in Europe, exposing the hidden environmental cost of the green transition.

KYIV - The aim of this conference is to enhance the ability of Ukrainian journalists to conduct evidence-based environmental investigations, particularly those related to the environmental consequences of war, land use and natural resource management.

CROATIA / ITALY - This investigation looks at how beaches in Italy and Croatia continue to receive the prestigious Blue Flag certification despite persistent failures to comply with EU wastewater treatment standards.

MILAN / WARSAW / KYIV - How Europe's exceptional welcome of 2022 turned into years of permanent uncertainty, exposing the cracks of a reception system that expects people in need to accept whatever they are offered.

BUDAPEST - Flavescence dorée, a devastating grapevine disease, is spreading across Central Europe, threatening vineyards and the livelihoods of winegrowers.

SAINT PETERSBURG / ALESSANDRIA - Chemicals made in Russia keep crossing the EU to reach an Italian plant, despite the war in Ukraine and years of sanctions. Middlemen in Germany and Israel, trucks through Estonia and a price that rose eightfold kept the supply going.

BRUSSELS - Despite EU water laws, this summer the drinking water supply system showed serious cracks in several regions in the European Union. Good water governance and its enforcement are essential to safeguard the access to clean drinking water on our continent. The European Commission is stepping ...

ONLINE / BOLOGNA - The first edition of FACTA Lab: Environment Uncovered is now open. This free training programme focuses on developing rigorous, evidence-based environmental investigations that respond to the needs of communities, through connecting journalism, science and civil society.

GALICIA / SANTAREM - A cross-border investigation into how eucalyptus expansion, rural abandonment, economic dependence and difficulties in enforcing forestry rules interact with wildfire risk.

ONLINE – Through this training, Bellingcat seeks to further empower investigative journalists in the field of environmental and wildlife reporting from a local to international level.

BRUSSELS – This investigation shows that local opposition to new reception centres for asylum seekers is often not a spontaneous neighbourhood protest. In 23 of the 26 Flemish municipalities where a new reception centre has opened since 2016, Vlaams Belang actively organised or supported the protest ...

LUANDA - A cross-border investigation reveals European, British and US oil giants have been routinely spilling oil in Angola’s oceans for 13 years, leaving residents ill and unable to eat. Multiple complaints have been ignored, while fishermen are asked to clean up under ‘voluntary work agreements’.

PUERTOLLANO / VENICE / NAPAJEDLA / MUNICH -Sold as a green industrial revolution, Europe's hydrogen rollout is increasingly a story about lobbying, import dependency and who controls the pipes.

BUCHAREST / SARAJEVO - Mega hydropower projects conceived decades ago during the communist era are now being resumed and developed, ignoring current priorities for water, biodiversity protection, and public spending.

GENEVA - The IPCC is one of the most respected scientific institutions in climate research. An investigation into its inner workings now reveals strong links to the Saudi government within its ranks, as well as apparent contradictions of the IPCC’s application of its conflict of interest rules.

ONLINE/MADRID – CINet is a capacity-building programme designed to strengthen the ability of local and regional journalists in Spain to investigate and address climate and environmental disinformation.

BRUSSELS / RIBERALTA - This investigation examines the European frontier of green finance: the carbon credit market is targeting Bolivia’s indigenous territories, whose rights are at risk of being trampled on. One controversial project shows the dangers involved to frontline communities.

ATYRAU - As the EU deepens its energy partnership with Kazakhstan, this investigation goes to the source of the oil that helps power European markets. Reporting from Atyrau, Kazakhstan's oil capital, it explores the social and environmental costs of decades of oil extraction.

KINSHASA – Échos du Silence explores the history surrounding human remains from the Congo that have been held in Belgium since the colonial period, and addresses issues relating to provenance, restitution, the transfer of knowledge and the dignity of the dead.