Supported projects

BRUSSELS - This story tells how European border and migration policy is making life difficult for people on the Balkan route. Officially, the route is closed, but this research shows how it is still active.

BRUSSELS - Europe's Natura 2000 protected areas are groaning under nitrogen emissions from livestock farming. Meanwhile, farmers near nature reserves fear for their future. Due to conflicting policy choices, agriculture and nature conversation have become diametrically opposed. The call for a long-term vision is becoming louder and louder. What kind of agriculture do we want in Flanders?

Investigation into cash flows and funds destined for the Islamic State's revival plan.

KYIV - After the fall of a self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria dozens of thousands of foreign fighters fighting in the ranks of Islamic State or ISIS disappeared. They used smugglers, contacts and networks to leave the country. Many of them were looking for safe havens where they can take a break, wait for new opportunities and orders or come back to normal life. 

STEKENE - It is not allowed to live in a recreation area. Yet people still live in a chalet or a caravan, or sometimes in a brick weekend residence. Sometimes these are people who find themselves in precarious financial circumstances. Pensioners, people coming out of a divorce, people who are ill, or who, in short, have a low income. They have found a housing solution that is acceptable to them and they are proud of it. They are not going to let it go.

Illegally logged teak from South Sudan goes to India where it is made into furniture before it could end up in stores in Europe. Indian timber traders illegally source the timber from East Africa and export it as an 'Indian' product after processing.

CAPE TOWN - As dam levels dropped rapidly at the end of 2017 and Cape Town faced the looming threat of becoming the first major city where taps would run dry, households were forced to pull out all the stops to save water. But Coca Cola and other big industrial users were given a free pass.

ACCRA, ABUJA – This investigation exposes a hidden network of Chinese control and ownership of many industrial fishing vessels operating in Ghanaian and Nigerian waters in contravention of local laws.

BRUSSELS - Climate change is making European summers ever drier and hotter, and not just in the south: During the extremely dry summer of 2018, the drought was mostly limited to the part of Europe north of the Alps. In many places, the summers of 2019 and 2020 were again unusually dry.

The investigation of Annika Joeres and Susanne Götze illuminates a neglected subject of climate policy. They show what a powerful player the Lobby for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has become for the European Climate Policy.