Supported projects

KERKENNAH ISLANDS - In Tunisia, artisanal fishers are facing depleted fish stocks as a result of illegal bottom trawling.

BRUSSELS - Nearly 23,000 sites all over Europe are contaminated by the “forever chemical” PFAS, an exclusive, months-long investigation from 18 European newsrooms shows. The investigation “The Forever Pollution Project” revealed an additional 21,500 presumptive contamination sites due to current or ...

CONAKRY / BELGRADE - 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.

ACCRA / ABUJA - The Dark Side of European Used Cars and Parts Trade in West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria)

BRUSSELS - You never wear one third of the clothes in your wardrobe. Another third you rarely ever put on. You have not touched nine out of ten outfits for a whole year. You throw away more clothes than any other European. And yet you keep buying new clothes. Because you feel that you need them ...

NAIROBI / YAOUNDÉ - A cross-border investigation has revealed that pesticides banned in the European Union are still in use in Kenya and Cameroon. These concerning chemicals are readily available to both small- and large-scale farmers, despite them being unaware of their effects.

SUMATRA - An EU directive is set to ban the import of palm oil for use as biodiesel. In the meantime, diesel will continue to be made from oil from plantations that have replaced virgin forest. A good example is provided by ENI and TotalEnergies in Indonesia.

COPENHAGEN - By 2050, the earth will have 10 billion inhabitants. At the same time, the area of available agricultural land per person is shrinking. As climate disrupts, classical farming systems are colliding with their limits.

SKOPJE - Journalismfund Europe supported SCOOP Macedonia in this project aimed at raising awareness about pollution through investigative and data journalism.

LONDON - A highly-produced three-part, narrative podcast, it follows the dirty trail of British waste from dustbins in England and exposes a British system creaking under the weight of hundreds of millions of tonnes of waste - with illegal dumping happening with impunity both at home and abroad.

BELGRADE / TIRANA – Two articles, one story – noise pollution in Western Balkans. Although constantly underestimated, this pollution is disturbing citizens of the region’s capitals on a daily basis. Unfortunately, noise has become a habit, which is precisely what should not happen.

BRATISLAVA - A couple from Slovakia imported hundreds of frogs from Central America to the EU, completely legally. However, the woman was later apprehended in Germany, where police seized over 100 frogs from her. Some of them of the kind which was never in history imported to Europe legally. Turns ...

BRUSSELS - Asbestos is more lethal than previously known. New figures, recognised by the EU institutions, show that 70,000-90,000 Europeans die each year of asbestos related cancer.

KINSHASA - Although the Amazon forest is significantly larger, the tropical forests in the Congo Basin, in the heart of Africa, are taking more CO2 out of the air today. This seems like good news, but these forests are also disappearing at a rapid pace.

RJIM MAATOUG - Importing the Saharan sun to supply Europe with clean and low-cost energy : this is the dream that European countries have been entertaining with certain players in the private energy sector for decades. Once buried, projects to export solar energy from the North African deserts to ...

MALELA - This investigation documents the company's environmental damage in a Mangrove natural park, foremost among which is its ground-level flaring, a practice that has been banned in the country since 2015, and which is the cause of very high CO2 emissions and very significant nuisance for ...

KYIV - Cereal is the new petroleum, farmland the new reservoirs of oil, and ships loaded with grain are the new pipelines. As the value of crops increases, every country in possession of this resource is in a position of power, and its transport to market is a politically-charged operation.

KIMINA - In 2006, the British company Tullow Oil discovered oil reserves in the Albertine Region of northwestern Uganda, with 6.5 billion recoverable barrels. At the beginning of 2022, the French oil company Total secured an agreement with the governments of Tanzania and Uganda and the Chinese state ...

BASEL - In 1987, a year after the Basel environmental disaster that left 1.5 million fishes dead in the Upper Rhine, nine European countries met and promised to restore the river including reintroducing Atlantic salmon by the year 2000 in its natural reproduction habitat in Switzerland. 35 years ...

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. 

LONDON / BRUSSELS – According to a 1980 international UN law, the Northeastern Atlantic countries must meet regularly to agree on a fishing quota for each country––so that everybody gets a fair share and fish stocks don't get overfished. The multilateral agreements are supposed to ensure that no ...

ALEXANDRIA - The Sinking Cities Project is an ambitious, six city investigation into how coastal area are preparing for the threat of climate change-caused sea level rise. Brought to you by Unbias the News and The Dublin Inquirer, the investigation targeted Alexandria, Egypt; Dhaka, Bangladesh ...

EUROPE - From red deer traces and half wild horses, to ecoducts and tree plantations, till mountain ranges and free flowing rivers. They have something in common: these are the roads and routes that nature uses. 

VILNIUS - Cycling is indispensable in the European Union’s efforts to reduce emissions – this was clear from the European Urban Mobility Framework a year ago. But as policymakers set ambitious targets, transport is emitting more than before, using a third of the EU's energy, and keeping Europe ...

BALI - South-East Asia’s informal workers are fighting to stop their livelihoods going up in flames with the expansion of waste-to-energy plants. 

EDINBURGH - Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is a shrimplike crustacean a few centimeters long, supporting the marine food chain around Antarctica. The Antarctic krill fishing industry has been growing in the last two decades, driven by the global growth of aquaculture. Krill is considered a ...

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.

HUELVA - Across the southern Iberian Peninsula, plastic greenhouses stretch to the horizon where rain-fed olives, wheat and grapes were traditionally grown. Spain and Portugal are Europe’s main producers of water-intensive berries. But the region is also one of the continent’s driest areas, where ...

KAYAR - Over half a million tonnes of fish are turned into fishmeal and fish oil to feed animals in industrial aquaculture systems and on intensive farms and demand is growing, as is outrage in West African fishing communities.