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.
The European Business in the Patagonian Vaca Muerta
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 ...
From Indonesia's Forests to Volkswagen: The Dirty Nickel Trail
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.
Flavescence Dorée: Early Warnings, Late Action, Lost Vines
BUDAPEST - Flavescence dorée, a devastating grapevine disease, is spreading across Central Europe, threatening vineyards and the livelihoods of winegrowers.
SAN 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 Uncoveredis 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.
Eucalyptus and Forest Fires Across Galicia and Portugal
GALICIA / SANTAREM - A cross-border investigation into how eucalyptus expansion, rural abandonment, economic dependence and difficulties in enforcing forestry rules interact with wildfire risk.
Advancing Open Source Investigation (OSINT) for Environmental and Wildlife
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.
How Vlaams Belang is actively orchestrating local protests against asylum centres
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 ...
Oil Giants’ Chronic Spills Poison Angola’s Coast and Communities
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.
CINet: Climate Investigation Network for Countering Disinformation
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.
Carbon Credits: Green Finance or European Colonialism in Bolivia ?
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.
Deadly Beaches: Tourists Drowned by Official Corruption
ELENITE/MAMAIA - Mutilated by political decisions that generate huge profits for certain companies, the Romanian and Bulgarian beaches on the Black Sea have become graveyards for tourists who are left at the mercy of natural phenomena exacerbated by the authorities.
How Are National Parks Turning Into Paper Products
RUŽOMBEROK - As demand for paper packaging grows, pressure on Europe’s forests increases. An investigation into Mondi SCP in Slovakia reveals the source of its wood and raises questions about the transparency of logging practices and the future of protected forests.
VALLETTA / LISBON / NICOSIA - In Southern Europe, water scarcity demands public investment and raises groundwater prices, but who profits? A three-country investigation identifies commercial actors with disproportionate water privileges in the EU’s most water-scarce countries: Malta, Cyprus & ...
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 ...
VYHIV / GYE-SUR-SEINE - This investigation uncovers the hidden journey of charcoal, from unpermitted kilns in Ukraine to supermarket shelves across Europe, and the alleged illegal practices behind a market with weak traceability.
BRUSSELS - Around 50,000 people are currently homeless in our country. We know they are there, and we seem to have come to terms with their situation. But why, exactly? Why is homelessness so low on the political agenda? Why are we failing to get these people off the streets? Are homeless people no ...
Before the burglary (AI at the local police station)
AMSTERDAM / GHENT – Can a burglary be predicted before it happens? According to the ambitious Bigdatpol project at Ghent University, this will soon become a reality. Led by Professor Wim Hardyns, the research team has spent years developing an AI model that can identify areas and times of high ...
ISTANBUL / BRUSSELS – The nature of warfare is changing rapidly today. A flood of new technologies is emerging on the battlefield, including drones, robots, lasers and artificial intelligence.
Cross-Border Environmental Investigative Training for Early-Career Journalists
OHRID – This project aims to strengthen the capacities of environmental investigative journalists in Southeast Europe by providing a structured programme combining specialised training, editorial mentoring, and support for cross-border investigative story production.